Since 2014, over 2,500 people, including many children, have died or gone missing along the eastern Mediterranean migration route between Turkey and Greece, according to a UNICEF official.
This announcement came shortly after a shipwreck in the Aegean Sea that claimed the lives of eight people, including six children. Regina De Dominicis, UNICEF’s Special Coordinator for the Refugee and Migrant Response in Europe, stated that the majority of those who perished were fleeing conflict and poverty. She expressed condolences for the lives lost, particularly in light of the recent disaster, where six children were among the eight victims who drowned in the Aegean Sea after their dinghy capsized.
In her statement, De Dominicis urged governments to use the Migration and Asylum Pact to strengthen protections for children. She emphasized the importance of ensuring safe, legal, and accessible routes for children to seek asylum and reunite with their families. Additionally, she called for better search and rescue operations, safe disembarkation, community-based reception and access to asylum services to prevent such preventable deaths.
Data from the Missing Migrants Project of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) shows that at least 2,508 people have died or gone missing on the Turkey-Greece migration route between 2014 and October 21, 2024.
