{"id":143468,"date":"2026-05-26T07:15:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T07:15:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/afromagazine.eu\/refugees-migrants-face-violence-abuse-and-death-on-routes-across-africa-new-data-shows\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T07:15:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T07:15:16","slug":"refugees-migrants-face-violence-abuse-and-death-on-routes-across-africa-new-data-shows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/afromagazine.eu\/en\/refugees-migrants-face-violence-abuse-and-death-on-routes-across-africa-new-data-shows\/","title":{"rendered":"Refugees, migrants face violence, abuse and death on routes across Africa, new data shows"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK —\u00a0Data from a new\u00a0report<\/a>\u00a0by the UN refugee agency,\u00a0UNHCR<\/a>, the UN migration agency\u00a0IOM<\/a>\u00a0and the Mixed Migration Centre (MMC) highlights the often under-reported perils facing vulnerable people on the move on dangerous land routes.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Abuse along the route<\/strong><\/p>\n

Regardless of their status, migrants, refugees, seem to face serious human rights violations and abuse along the route…We cannot lose our capacity to get outraged by this level of violence,\u201d said Vincent Cochetel, UNHCR Special Envoy for the Western and Central Mediterranean.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

More people are estimated to cross the Sahara desert than the Mediterranean Sea\u00a0 and deaths of refugees and migrants in the desert are presumed to be double those at sea. The report – \u201cOn this journey, no-one cares if you live or die\u201d \u2013 spans a three-year data collection period and warns of an increase in the number of people attempting these perilous land crossings.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Highlighting that the central Mediterranean migration route continues to be among the deadliest in the world, IOM Director of the Coordination Office for the Mediterranean Laurence Hart noted that \u201ca very high number of people\u201d still take the risk of embarking on \u201cvery dangerous journeys. Obviously, there’s a lot of people do not choose to move, but they are pushed because of\u2026political conflict, instability.\u201d<\/p>\n

Push factors<\/strong><\/p>\n

So-called push factors on the migration route include the deteriorating situation in countries of origin and host countries \u2013 such as new conflicts in the Sahel and Sudan – the devastating impact of climate change and disasters on new and protracted emergencies in the East and Horn of Africa, as well as racism and xenophobia towards refugees and migrants.<\/p>\n

Huge gaps in protection and assistance prevail across the Central Mediterranean route, pushing refugees and migrants to move onward on dangerous journeys, the report notes.<\/p>\n

Just last week, we heard that 5,000 people died on the Atlantic route to the Canary Islands in the first five months of this year – that’s an increase of 700 per cent compared to the same period last year,\u201d said Bram Frouws, Director of the Mixed Migration Centre (MMC). \u201cWe also know even though we don’t have fully accurate numbers, and indeed it is an underestimation that countless others die on the land routes, up to the Mediterranean coast, possibly even more than at sea.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Insufficient efforts<\/strong><\/p>\n

Despite commitments undertaken by the international community to save lives and address vulnerabilities, the report\u2019s authors warned that current efforts to hold all those accountable for the abuse and dangers that migrants and refugees suffer are inadequate.\u00a0Criminal groups and traffickers are often responsible for terrible abuses, Mr. Frouws said, but \u201cState officials – like police, military and border guards” \u2013 also played a role. \u201cBut whoever they are, whichever category, they should be held accountable. But at the moment, much of this is happening in a situation of near complete impunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

The report noted that smuggling routes are shifting towards more remote areas to avoid active conflict zones or border controls by State and non-State actors, subjecting people on the move to even greater risks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The kinds of abuse reported include torture, physical violence, arbitrary detention, death, kidnapping for ransom, sexual violence and exploitation, enslavement, human trafficking, forced labour, organ removal, robbery, arbitrary detention, collective expulsions and refoulement.<\/p>\n

Stepping up life-saving protection<\/strong><\/p>\n

Support as well as access to justice for survivors of various forms of abuse is rarely available anywhere on the routes, the report indicated, citing inadequate funding and restrictions on humanitarian access. This is particularly the case in key locations such as informal detention centres and holding facilities.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Despite these challenges, UNHCR, IOM and partners including NGOs and several governments have stepped up life-saving protection services and assistance, identification and referral mechanisms along the routes. But they insist that humanitarian action is not enough.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s important to look at how to regularize or legalise migrants in countries of transit if there is a need, but also further afield\u2026in European countries responding to the need for talents and for manpower,\u201d said IOM\u2019s Mr. Hart. \u201cOpening up regular channels is indeed not the silver bullet, but certainly an enabler. Another element, another pillar, on which migration governance hinges on.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK — Data from a new report by the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, the UN migration agency IOM and the Mixed Migration Centre (MMC) highlights the often under-reported perils facing vulnerable people on the move on dangerous land routes.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":143469,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2653],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[2583],"class_list":{"0":"post-143468","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-article"},"authors":[{"term_id":2583,"user_id":1,"is_guest":0,"slug":"mermar","display_name":"mermar","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b97554d899a7ce8df2bc286c2f73beda56ebbc97d5d9ced74f7a04498e0fb0d3?s=96&d=mm&r=g","0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/afromagazine.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/afromagazine.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/afromagazine.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/afromagazine.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/afromagazine.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143468"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/afromagazine.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143468\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":143811,"href":"https:\/\/afromagazine.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143468\/revisions\/143811"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/afromagazine.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/afromagazine.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/afromagazine.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/afromagazine.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143468"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/afromagazine.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=143468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}