Maritime History

List of migrant vessel incidents on the Mediterranean Sea

This article is a list of migrant vessel incidents on the Mediterranean Sea resulting from the european border policies and the construction of the Fortress Europe with migration flows linked to developments such as the Arab Spring protests (2010–2012), the civil wars in Syria (since 2011) and Libya (2014–2020), and emerging conflicts in Sudan, Niger, Israel, and Palestine in 2023. Over 28,000 people have died or have been declared missing while in migration across the Mediterranean Sea since 2014. The 'Deaths at the Border' project at the University of Amsterdam estimates that a further 3,188 people died while trying to reach Europe between 1990 and 2013. By comparison, a total of 609 people lost their lives in maritime accidents between 2011 and 2021 which involved vessels registered by European Union countries or other registered vessels in EU waters. This marked the beginning of what the media and politicians have termed the ‘migration crisis’. Following the exodus of millions of Syrians in 2015, European governments adopted a new border management strategy. The term ‘migration crisis’, which emerged at the same time, should, however, be viewed with caution, as it implies that the so-called ‘irregular’ arrivals of people at Europe’s borders are an unprecedented and unpredictable phenomenon. Yet the shift in European migration policies in the 1970s, brought about by the Schengen Agreements, made it possible to anticipate this ‘migration crisis’. Thus, Ruben Andersson highlights this paradox of European states which, in seeking to combat immigration, actually produce the very thing they hope to reduce: forms of illegal migration. This is why Annalisa Lendaro, amongst others, prefers to speak of a ‘reception crisis’, or even a ‘crisis of solidarity’ and of states’ capacity to respond.

Also on this shelf

See also

• ▸HMS Repulse (1916)
• ▸CAESAR (spacecraft)
• ▸1750s

Uncatalogued shelf

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