Berlin: German newspaper Tagesspiegel has released a list of 33,293 migrants who lost their lives in a bid to migrate to Europe. Hundreds of thousands fleeing wars and poverty in the Middle East, Asia and Africa have tried to reach Europe in recent years. Some European countries have built fences along their borders to stop the influx.
4-month-old, Faris Ali froze to death in a tent in Turkey. Similarly 5-year-old Afghan girl Sajida Ali’s body was washed ashore after a shipwreck. Samuel and his mother drowned while trying to reach Spain after leaving home in Congo. Last year in January Ghafoor (29) and Talat Abdul Hameed (36), both Iraqi nationals, froze to death in Bulgaria’s mountainous border with Turkey after two days walking through snow.
Tagesspiegel, with reference to United Nations sources stated that some migrants died due to fire in camps, while some committed suicide. It informed that thousands of refugees and migrants have died en route to Europe. Several of those named died in racist attacks or other violence after thinking they had finally found safety.
The biggest single tragedy happened in May 2016 when 550 people drowned after two fishing boats sank off the Libyan coast.