An average of five migrants have died every day trying to reach Spain during the first half of 2022, which represents a total of 978 victims, according to the report "Rights to Life" presented this Wednesday by the Caminando Fronteras collective, which points to the Canary route as the deadliest, concentrating 800 of those deaths.
Of those almost a thousand victims, the organization calculates that 938 lost their lives on the maritime routes - the Canary Islands, the Strait, the Alborán Sea and the Algerian - and 40 died due to "police violence" in the attempt to cross the Melilla fence on June 24, 37 during the jump and 3 in the following days.
Of the total number of migrants who died in this semester, 118 were women and 41 were minors.
However, 87.8 percent of the victims are missing, as their bodies have not been recovered. Also, 18 boats have disappeared with all the people on board.
The deadliest route has been the Canary Islands (800 victims and 28 shipwrecks), followed by the Algerian route (101 and 11), the Alborán Sea route (35 and 3) and the Strait route (2 and 2).
Although the Strait, Alborán and Algerian routes are less traveled, the risk increases "due to the omission of the duty to rescue by the authorities," the report denounces.
"The rescue means are not activated, or are activated very late with regard to the alerted boats. This happens especially in Alborán, the Balearic Islands and in the rescues of the Atlantic zone coordinated by Morocco," he stresses.
Among the negligence, it warns that search means are not deployed quickly enough despite having the position of the boats, nor are air means deployed when there are people in the water.
It also highlights the lack of coordination between the Spanish authorities and the border countries.
Throughout the first half of 2022, the months that registered the highest number of deaths and disappearances were January and June, with 306 and 290 victims respectively.
The migrants - "who have traveled the world to die on the Spanish coasts", the report stresses - come from 23 different countries, including Algeria, Morocco, Mauritania, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka or Yemen.
These people were "expelled from their territory", the report explains, "due to war conflicts, impoverishment aggravated by climate change and lack of work, sexist violence and violence against LGTBI groups and repression against human rights activists."
Helena Malero, coordinator of Caminando Fronteras, has stated that the report reflects the "bellicist discourse that has increased the military presence on the borders" after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine and the renewal of the good neighbor pact between Spain and Morocco.
"The militarization has been determined by the agreement between the Spanish state and Morocco, where recognitions of territorial interests and economic endowments have been exchanged in return for the blocking and repression of people in movement", the study reflects.
Among these repression tools, it highlights arbitrary detentions, the systematic use of force, racial discrimination, collective expulsions and specific violence against women and minors.
"In Ceuta and Melilla, human rights are being violated transnationally because of the way they are treating asylum seekers and infant migrants. Migrants and their deaths are serving as bargaining chips," Malero denounced.
The coordinator of the collective has cited as an example the "massacre" that took place at the Melilla fence last June, in which, according to her, 40 migrants died due to suffocation from gases, crushing, baton blows and fire bullets. However, according to testimonies collected by the collective, the number of deaths may amount to 62.
