Nearly 3,000 migrants and refugees have already perished in the Mediterranean this year while almost 250,000 have reached Europe, the International Organization for Migration said on Friday (July 22).
IOM spokesman Joel Millman told a news briefing in Geneva that the death toll stands at an estimated 2,977, adding that the 3,000 benchmark had been reached earlier than in previous years of the four-year emergency.
"This will be the third straight year that the number of fatalities that the IOM (International Organization for Migration) has reported in the Mediterranean has surpassed 3,000. This is the earliest we have seen the 3,000 mark, this occurred in September of 2014, and October of 2015. So for this to be happening before the end of July is quite alarming," he said.
In the four months since late March, about 20 migrants have been dying each day, mainly sub-Saharan Africans along the route from Libya to Italy, he added.
