Italy - Days before International Migrants Day – observed on December 18^th – Italy’s Ministry of the Interior has released November and year-to-date data on migrant arrivals by sea. Through November 30, 2014 Italy reports 163,368 migrants have been rescued at sea this year.

That is an increase of 9,923 during the most recent month, which is only about a third of September’s 26,107 arrivals. “There were many days of bad weather,” explained IOM Italy Chief of Mission Federico Soda, who noted that despite ever rougher winter sea conditions, migrant smugglers continue to find passengers seeking safety in Europe.

In November, Syrians comprised the largest nationality arriving in Italy – nearly 3,000 or a third of the total. Eritreans dropped to just over 300 arrivals,

“We have noticed that lately Syrians are mostly arriving on boats leaving from Turkey, while arrivals from Libya are mainly composed by Sub-Saharans,” said Soda. “At this stage we cannot say if this could be a new trend, but we will investigate this.”

For the year, Syrians are also the most numerous contingent, with just under 40,000 arrivals since January 1, followed by Eritreans, with just over 34,000.

At this point last year, Syrian arrivals totalled 10,852 and Eritreans 9,213. 2014 arrivals from Mali, Nigeria, Gambia, Palestine and Bangladesh have all more than doubled from last year’s total.

Bangladeshis arriving by sea so far in 2014 total 4,386, compared to just 297 in 2013. Palestinians, at 5,713 arrivals, are nearly six times 2013’s total, when 1,043 arrived by sea.

IOM’S mission in Italy also reports this week that staffers were able to meet and provide assistance to some of the 391 migrants arriving on Wednesday (10/12) in the Sicilian port of Augusta. Witnesses said they were travelling on a large fishing boat that left Mersin, Turkey on November 29th. The main nationalities were Syrians and Palestinians. 

For the first time, IOM staff met, among the migrants, refugees fleeing Kobane, the besieged city in Syria’s Kurdish highlands. They interviewed a family of 15, including one elderly woman in her 70s, her four daughters and their husbands, and their children, including several toddlers.

Family members said they left Kobane on the 22nd of September and travelled to the Turkish refugee camp of Suruc. They said difficult conditions in the camp – including lack of milk for the children – caused them to seek passage to Italy.

They said they sold their belongings, chiefly gold, to finance their trip, which they reported was USD 6,000 per family member over the age of 7. The youngest children travel without payment. They reported many other Kobane refugees now are leaving the Suruc camp, with many choosing to enter Greece from Turkey, because the sea crossing is expensive and dangerous.

Soda of IOM Italy reports prices that smugglers are charging Syrians for sea crossings appear to be rising, although large groups may enjoy a discount. “Prices from Turkey change, depending on the size of the boat,” he said. “If the migrants number more than 500, the price is USD 4,500 dollars each. If less than 500, then it may climb to USD 6,000 per passenger.”

The new arrivals from Turkey told IOM investigators that after leaving Mersin on November 29th on a small, wooden fishing boat, the people arranging their passage – a mix of Turkish and Syrian men – brought together a number of wooden boats carrying migrants on the high seas, and then transferred them onto a bigger fishing boat with a steel hull. That loading operation took several days, witnesses told IOM, and the actual sea crossing about a week.

Last weekend the migrants were rescued by two ships – one from Iceland’s Coast Guard and a Spanish tug boat.

IOM staffers also interviewed survivors from among 557 migrants rescued in six other operations on December 7^th. All of the migrants were from Sub-Saharan Africa and were brought to Sicily by the Italian Navy ship “Cigala Fulgosi”.

Among them were survivors of a shipwreck that IOM reported on early this week (9/12) that caused the deaths of at least 18 victims. According to survivors’ testimonies, another 10 victims are believed to be missing, presumed drowned, from the wreck. The survivors are mainly from Nigeria, with a handful from Senegal and Mali.

Other migrants brought ashore by the “Cigala Fulgosi” included survivors of a shipwreck occurring on 5th of December. They said that they left Tajura, Libya, on the night of Thursday, December 4. Their rubber dinghy – with about 110 people on board – began slowly sinking the following afternoon. By the time help arrived, some 47 migrants had already been swept away by the waves. The migrants were mainly young men from the Gambia.  A pregnant woman in the group is among those still missing.

IOM also has an update on a shipwreck reported from Yemen earlier this month. IOM’s team in Sana’a reported a total of 24 victims died, all from Ethiopia, after their vessel capsized in bad weather off the port of Al-Makha, near Bab al-Mandab Strait. So far 21 bodies have been recovered

IOM notes that with these latest reports, migrant deaths along sea routes from Africa in 2014 now top 3,500, most of those in the Mediterranean. This is about six times last year’s total. 

For more information, please contact

Dax Bennett Roque

IOM Yemen

Tel. +967 410 568/572

Email: droque@iom.int

or

Flavio Di Giacomo

IOM Italy

Tel: +39 347 089 8996

Email: fdigiacomo@iom.int