Tag: UN

  • 2024 deadliest year for migrants – UN

    2024 deadliest year for migrants – UN

    Last year was the deadliest year for migrants, with nearly 9,000 people dying worldwide, the United Nations said on Friday, calling the “tragedy… unacceptable and preventable”.

    “At least 8,938 people died on migration routes worldwide in 2024,” the fifth year that numbers have reached record highs, the UN’s migration agency said.

    “The tragedy of the growing number of migrant deaths worldwide is both unacceptable and preventable,” said Ugochi Daniels, the deputy director of the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

    “Behind every number is a human being, someone for whom the loss is devastating,” Daniels said.

    “The actual number of migrant deaths and disappearances is likely much higher, as many have gone undocumented because of the dearth of official sources,” the IOM said.

    It added that the identities and other details of the majority of victims were unknown.

    Asia, Africa and Europe had record numbers of people dying in 2024 with 2,778, 2,242 and 233 respectively.

    A total of 2,452 people were recorded as dying in the Mediterranean Sea, the main gateway for those trying to reach Europe, it said.

    Final data were not available yet for the Americas but figures so far show at least 1,233 people died.

    These included “an unprecedented 341 lives lost in the Caribbean in 2024 and a record 174 deaths of migrants crossing the Darien” jungle between Colombia and Panama.

    The Darien jungle was at one point the main migratory corridor for people trying to reach the United States.

  • Trump’s bid to take over Gaza ‘very surprising’ – UN

    Trump’s bid to take over Gaza ‘very surprising’ – UN

    The head of the UN refugee agency voiced consternation Wednesday at President Donald Trump’s shock proposal for the United States to take over the Gaza Strip and resettle its people.

    Filippo Grandi, the United Nations’ high commissioner for refugees, told AFP in an interview in Brussels it was not “clear” what the idea entailed, which made it difficult to comment on such a “sensitive issue”.

    “It’s something very surprising, but we have to see what it means in concrete terms,” Grandi said.

    Trump made his announcement to audible gasps on Tuesday during a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whom he was hosting at the White House for talks.

    In a proposal that lacked details, Trump said he would make the war-battered enclave “unbelievable” by removing unexploded bombs and rubble, and economically redeveloping it.

    Grandi also said his agency, the UNHCR, was in the process of “renegotiating” US support after Washington announced a sweeping freeze of most US aid.

    “All of this is very fluid at the moment, which is a problem, because we are an organisation that cannot wait too long,” Grandi said.

    The US currently. accounted for up to 40 percent of all contributions received by the UNHCR, he said.