MADRID, 24 Ene. (EUROPA PRESS) –

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has denounced that throughout 2022 a record number of 321 migrants died and disappeared in the Caribbean, the highest since it launched its Missing Migrants Project.

In a statement, the organization has warned that the number shows a “drastic increase” compared to the data for 2021, when 180 deaths and disappearances were recorded in the same area.

In total, 66 were women, 64 men and 28 adolescents of both sexes. In addition, 163 deceased have not been able to be identified. “More than 51 percent of the people who lost their lives on Caribbean migration routes last year have not been able to be identified,” said Patrice Quesada, IOM Regional Coordinator for the Caribbean. “This means that hundreds of families do not have information about the whereabouts of their loved ones,” she asserted.

Most of the migrants who died or disappeared were from Haiti (80), Cuba (69), the Dominican Republic (56) and Venezuela (25). Quesada explained that the main cause of death is drowning caused by bad weather conditions, which make navigation difficult. Added to this is the use of precarious vessels that are not suitable for sailing on the high seas.

A significant number of the reported incidents occurred on routes leading to the United States, especially on routes from the Dominican Republic to Puerto Rico, from Haiti to the Dominican Republic, and from Venezuela to various Caribbean islands.

Julio César, a Cuban migrant and the only survivor of the six people who suffered a shipwreck recently, has expressed that it is a “terrible” experience and has maintained that they are “dangerous” routes. “The boat capsized five times, we lost our meager provisions and panic and cold overwhelmed them,” he recounted.

“Fear seeps into your bones, your clothes end up completely soaked, the vertigo of the waves (…). I saw them from above, when I was on the crest of the wave, until the water swallowed them,” he has continued.

The IOM has thus called on the governments of the Caribbean countries and of all these migratory routes to “optimize regional cooperation and guarantee the protection and security of migrants regardless of their migratory status and in all instances of their trips”.

“The prevention of migrant deaths must begin through regular migratory pathways, defending the right of families to remain together and responding to the needs of migrants who are in a situation of vulnerability,” the text states.