DATA FROM UNICEF AND FONDAZIONE MIGRANTES
RECORD FIGURES OF MIGRANTS IN 2022

 

Statistics is not that science according to which if one person swallows a whole chicken and another dies of hunger, it turns out that both have eaten half of it. If we are careful with data, read the numbers properly, really understand what the tables mean we may see how things are going. In particular on very sensitive topics such as that of migrants. One of the sources considered most reliable on the subject is that of the Fondazione Migrantes, which has just published the 2022 Report on the Right to Asylum. Another is Unicef and it is worth comparing the data provided in recent months.

According to Migrantes, there are 103 million refugees in the world, a figure never reached before, equal to one inhabitant out of 77. More than double compared to 10 years ago. Last year, Europe welcomed over 4.4 million Ukrainian refugees who were granted temporary protection. In the same year however, the EU «did everything to keep tens of thousands of people outside its borders, people from other routes and countries in need of protection», reads the text. According to the Italian Episcopal Conference «at the end of October 2022 the minimum estimate of refugees and migrants dead and missing in the Mediterranean was just under 1,800. Once again, the heaviest toll was paid by those attempting to cross the central Mediterranean, on the route that leads to Italy and Malta, where 1,295 dead and missing were counted, compared to 172 in the western sector and 295 in the eastern sector» the report states.

There are 103 million refugees in the world, a figure never reached before. More than double that of 10 years ago

The UNICEF study goes back even further in time. According to the United Nations Children's Fund, more than 2.4 million people have crossed the Mediterranean from 2014 to today, fleeing war, violence and poverty, hoping to reach Europe for a better life. At least 23,845 have lost their lives at sea. Many of them were children. Many were young people and adolescents who, more often than not, travelled without family members and were unaccompanied by adults. Over 165,500 people arrived in Europe in 2021, including 23,000 children or under-18s, often in very difficult conditions. In the first 10 months of 2022, arrivals amounted to more than 116,000. Of these, almost 23,000 were children fleeing conflict, insecurity and poverty, particularly from the Middle East and North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa and Central and South Asia. In 2021, the easing of the measures to contain the Covid-19 pandemic allowed the recovery of migratory flows. As of December 2021, just under 100,000 refugee and migrant children were present in Italy, Greece, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Montenegro and Serbia, the countries most affected by the emergency, including almost 17,000 children separated from their parents and unaccompanied by adults.

Since 2014 just under 24,000 people have lost their lives in the Mediterranean in the hope of reaching Europe

The picture of the situation is clear and not new: people who can, leave countries where there is no security and no work. It has always happened, only the nationalities of the desperate change. The question to ask yourself is: should we or shouldn't we share our chicken?

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