The number of migrant deaths on the Mediterranean route to Europe fluctuates and hasn’t decreased significantly, the Russian Deputy Ambassador to the UN Dmitry Polyansky said on Monday.
“We note the decrease in the number of victims as compared to last year by 42%; however, this decrease does not seem so significant if we recall that last year the number of deaths at sea increased by 77%,” Polyansky told his colleagues on the UN Security Council.
Moreover, the overall number of deaths is now over 24,000 people, he added.
At the end of September, a boat carrying mostly Tunisian migrants sank off the Tunisian island of Djerba, killing at least 12 people, according to officials.