4 migrants a day drowned in Med in 2024 - UNHCR

(ANSA) - ROME, FEB 8 - Four migrants a day have drowned in the Mediterranean trying to reach Italy this year, the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said Thursday.
    "Today's dead and missing add to the dramatic death toll of shipwrecks in the Mediterranean Sea," Chiara Cardoletti, UNHCR representative for Italy, said after the latest shipwreck off Tunisia left 13 dead and 27 missing.
    "Since the beginning of the year, an average of four people a day have lost their lives along the central route, which remains one of the most active and dangerous routes globally with more than 75 per cent of the victims recorded in the Mediterranean over the last decade.
    "It is urgent and crucial to restore enhanced and well coordinated search and rescue operations at European level to support the valuable work of the Italian Coast Guard".
    On the central Med route, migrant traffickers set off from North Africa and ferry their human cargo towards Italy. (ANSA).