Why are so many people dying in the Mediterranean?

African migrants arrive in Palermo after a successful rescue mission. Demotix/Antonio Melita. Some rights reserved.2015 was the deadliest year in the Mediterranean Sea ever. According to UNHCR, 3,771 people died or went missing when attempting to cross from one coast to the other, 1,014,836 arrived at the European shores – both numbers mark sad records.

Even 2011, the year of collapsing state authorities in Egypt, Tunisia and especially Libya, and the consequent crumbling of border controls and coast guards institutions in particularly the latter two countries, already perceived as a record year, saw numbers which are nothing compared to the recent entries: some 58,000 arrivals and more than 1,500 deads/missings were recorded back then.

Analysts usually hint at the civil war in Syria that has displaced millions of people internally, to the neighbouring countries Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey, and since 2014 increasingly also to Europe. Clearly, the situation in Syria has become a major trigger of the recent record refugee numbers; yet, it is not sufficient to explain why so many people die or go missing on their way to Europe.