Breakdown and Highlights of IOM Report: Fatal Journeys 1-2 work in progress: Tracking the Lives Lost During the Migration (2014)

Fatal Journeys Volume 2; Identification and Tracing of the Dead and Missing Migrants.

By: IOM's Gobal Migration Data Analysis Center (GMDAC)

So today I bring you guys  a new IOM report that is a follow up to Fatal Journeys that came out this year (2016). This study instead of revisiting the migratory issues by region, it just focuses on three basic problems that are all related border deaths,  missing migrants and the suffering of the families that cannot find their love ones.

The  Fatal Journeys Volume 2 (FJ 2) sheds light on the legal void that surrounds this subject and its undesired effects up it also show how some things  are changing and evolving with a interesting collaboration of civil society, NGOs and social media that try to fill the void left by the State, so please enjoy my break down of this new report and it's highlights

 

Things that one can take away from this report:

In 2015, it is estimated that around that 5.400 migrants died or have gone missing trying to cross illegally into destination or transit countries, and 3.770 of those deaths were in failed crossings of the Mediterranean sea. But in first  five months of 2016, there have been 3.100 deaths.

The report centers around borders deaths and missing, and the legal and political void there is around border deaths and the lack of standardized protocols in how to take statistics on the issue.   

Us Border Patrol estimate that 6.500 (P 26. FJ2) border death since 1998 and 320 during 2015, with three major causes being  the Rio Grande, the desert and violence at the border, and one must note that these are deaths on the US side of the border, the report does not have the statistics of the Mexican side. And there is no Coordinated system in tracking migrants death in Mexico and Central America.

"The Red Cross Societies, Humanitarian NGOs such as MSF and civil society fill the gaps left by the State" (P33, FJ2) in help finding incommunicated migrants, the dead and missing.

The Fatal Journey study highlights  the issue of the bodies that are found at high sea that many fisher man do not pick them out of the water because they do not want to be tied down with bureaucratic paper work when handing over the bodies, using the example of Greek fishermen during the migratory crisis of 2015, and one must note that maritime law only makes it obligatory to pick up the living and not the dead. 

In Europe , not on a EU or individual national level, does not have no centralized  database holding information on migrants missing, identified dead or on unidentified bodies. 

Local management and infrastructure have not reinforced in migratory hotspots to deal with the increase of arrivals and deaths, for example in many places the morgues are collapsing because of the over abundance of bodies.

 

More land has to be allocated for burials, referring to the European migratory crisis, so each migrant can get a individual graves with a headstone, individualized if possible.

 

The report mentions some of the NGOs and public institutions  that help migrant's families find their love ones in there trek to the US and near its interior border: 

·         Colibri Center for Human Rights, that has a data base that covers the death on both sides of the border.

·         Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team/EAAF, investigation human rights violation, collecting DNA samples from the dead and families, to see if they can find matches.

·         South Texas Human Rights Center

·         Forensic Anthropology Center at Texas State University

·         Migrant Rights Collective.

 

Central American countries have a joint project  to identify missing migrants collecting information on bodies found along the route comparing it with info given by the families. This is a collaboration with national governments of El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, with the Mexican State of Chiapas, NGOs and family associations.

The Red Cross has created a app that helps tracing lost migrants on Facebook and Twitter.

Sometime migrants themselves bury their dead are make rudimentary graves and later uploading on  social media who had died and possible place to find the body.

Migrants that cross on illegal vessels write their names on the howl just in case if it sinks, and if it does they will scream their names, tribe and places of birth so if there is any survivors they can inform their families of their deaths.  

Migrant's families need information if there love ones are alive, to be able to bury their dead, economic support to find their love one bodies, Psychosocial support to deal with the fact of the loss of a love one and something that is important  to verify marital status, for inheritance reason and for guardianship.   

There is a lack of  international norms the establishes the obligations of the State  relative to missing migrants and assisting the relatives with the dead, and humanitarian disaster norms do not apply.

 


Fatal Journeys: Tracking the Lives Lost During the Migration (2014)

Edited by Tara Brian and Frank Laczko

Something that becomes apparent when you read this report and other like it is that the Lampedusa tragedy was somewhat of a wakeup call for Europe, that was sort of looking the other way while migrants were drowning trying in the Mediterranean, it was a rude awakening. No this report  focuses on the global hot spots where migrants are perishing or suffering  grave violations.     

 

Things that one can take away from this report:

Something the Report illustrates and has become more and more obvious over the years reading about this subject, that tighter border controls push people to take risks and try crossing using more treacherous routs, and traffickers are ready and waiting to give them a hand, but at a terrible price. Now migrants wouldn't take these unnecessary risks if given accessible legal channels.

These irregular crossings, that by nature go undetected and something goes wrong there will be no one on a State level there to help.

The registration of Border deaths isn't standardized some count the deaths in the vicinity outside of their border, while others only those who die inside, others register those who perish in government  custody. And governments cannot do much in registering the  missing and the unknowns. 

There are real challenges in collecting information on this subject because these migratory flow want to be as invisible a possible, remote topography, environmental challenges. ¿How can you count the missing that you do not know if they crossed or not? The involvement of criminal actors help to keep thing under the radar. And finally the report explains the  border deaths have not been defined on a international level  so this leads to a major problem in taking statistic on the issue.

In 2015, 75%  ( 23p. FJ) of all migrant deaths 3.072 ( 23p. FJ) perished crossing the Mediterranean, and it's estimated that 65% (24p. FJ) of those fatalities are African migrants and from the Middle East.

Report establishes the concept of functional borders, it is composed of a external border and internal border that contains detention facilities and migrants in forced deportation / return.

Africa has three major routes, two heading North the Eastern and Western routes and one that heads east to the Arabian peninsula through the horn of Africa. All three flows are feed by growing populations. The eastern routes are influenced by insecurity, while the western route is mostly composed of economic migrants. The trafficking trade is prominent in all three routes but more prominent in the east. Stronger migratory controls in the east means it's harder to transit legally from one State to another creating a opportunity  for smuggler that help in illegal crossings  and corrupting officials, while in West Africa for example ECOWAS State members have far less barrier and interregional mobility is high  leaving less room for criminal enterprises.

Smugglers and Traffickers many time pose as legitimate travel agencies who openly solicit for clients, deceiving and cheating migrants into purchasing there services, but once in their power they literally own the migrant until the decide to release them.

Report make  a very interesting observation the death counts can get politicized  there for affecting the recollection of the information, and it should be approach from a humanitarian perspective. "Death Counts can be used as a sporting tally" P. 182 competing claims appear, politicians pro and  anti migrant use these statistics in different ways.

Highlights and Interesting Information by Country: 

North and Central America:

United States of America ( Destination Country):  The report states that the "story of  migrants death in North America is a story of exclusion and exposure" (FJ 2015). Migrants and especial poor migrants are increasingly seen as a negative other ( for a certain part of the US society), the ones responsible for the growing social problems in the country, and this  problem leads to not pay attention to migrant deaths, there is a mentality that they broke the law and they brought this onto themselves, the risk of  labor exploitation, being taken advantage of by organized crime and the risk of dying in the crossing.  Migrants face structural violence in the US but with growing controls were met will direct and physical violence in Mexico. I must note that these particular negative views towards migrants do not limit themselves to the US, Extreme right wing parties are rising around the world and they gain great fool hold scapegoatting against these people.

For migrants trying to cross illegally with a relative level of success  they and the smugglers have taken advantage of the US policy of Segmented Enforcement, only guarding the main legal and illegal crossing points not going deep into the desert falling back on the natural barriers of this inhospitable geography , so the migrants go deep into desert that extends the whole southern border far from any community being funneled into dangerous areas. The study explains that during the Clinton administration tightened boarder control during the  mid to late 90's, this lead to a growth of border deaths. With Operation Gate Keeper  in San Diego, Operation Hold the Line in El Paso and Operation Safe Guard in Arizona  pushed migrants in to the desert.  

Mexico (Transition Country, Buffer State, Origin country): Central American on their trek to the US have to transit though Mexico, which is pretty dangerous, many migrant choose to ride on top of freight trains  like the Beast, heading north. The report establishes that Mexico in 2013 had detained 86.298 (p 49. FJ) foreign individuals transiting through it territory.

The report describes that Mexico  has a internal vertical boarder the goes from south to north, where Central Americans migrants experience total illegality, vulnerability and marginalization, with criminal organization praying on them the whole way extorting, enslaving, torturing and kidnapping migrants holding them for  ransom. It is known for example that the Mara Salvatrucha controls whole sections of the rout and migrants must pay to pass.

Now what  generates the migrants from Mexico itself  that  travel by land are farmers and poor families that worked in the agricultural sector that residually  that are still feeling the aftershocks from NAFTA

Guatemala, Nicaragua and Honduras (Origin Countries): There is a culture of migration in these countries and the report recognizes that Mexico War on Drugs, pushed the organized crime south to these countries, pretty much disrupting these societies with a strong spike in violence and crime in these nations, this added to the poor  economic situation of these State was like adding fuel to the fire producing a large migration from this part of the world.

Africa:

Libya (Transit State, Springboard State, Destination Country): Racism and Xenophobia are a real issue in this country and one must add the complicated social political situation, but migrants still travel to this country searching for work. Now when they arrive discovering the hostility towards them, this tends to push them to try their luck in crossing the Mediterranean, before returning home empty handed.   

Eritrea (Origin country): The report establishes that Eritrean nationals are suffering disproportionally at the hands of Traffickers in a study by van Reisen Estefanos and Rijken, called The Human Trafficking Cycle: Sinai and Beyond mentions that between 25.000-30.000 (121p. FJ) Eritreans had fallen victim to organized crime between 2009-2013 and around 10.000 have died. Many are kidnapped for ransom, that if not paid they are killed and some are killed to traffic their organs to be sold in the Egyptian black market, which in the report mentions that WHO actually accuses Egypt to be a organ trafficking hotspot.

Now what drives Eritreans to leave their country, the report mentions that obligatory military conscription pushes many people out to the country, because the time they serve in the military is just terrible and inhuman, evading this is considered a major crime in the country, this puts people on the run and adding to this Eritrean government has a policy of shooting on sight if caught red handed leaving the country by land and sea.

Ethiopia (Origin Country): Ethiopians also fall victim to trafficker once they cross in to Yemen, even those who are not victims suffer great hardships in the country, in their rout to Saudi Arabia, now during 2013-2014 this country in a migrant crack down forced returned deported 160.000 (p 141. FJ) Ethiopians.  Some of these nationals choose to go transit to South Africa but Anti-Migrant sentiment and Xenophobia are running high in this nation.

Ethiopia has one of the highest fertility rates in the world with a population of 92 million, so  a full blown Ethiopian Exodus in the future could be a potential crisis in waiting, one must add that in this country there is also a culture of migration, to migrate and establish oneself is a sign of personal success.    

 Somalia {Somaliland and Puntland} (Origin Country): Basically a broken State but there nationals are considered mostly refugee's

South Pacific:

Australia (Destination): This country is characterized for having total visas system, almost every country, with very few exceptions like with New Zealand that has a special regimen, so this filters many unwanted visitors helping the country manage the migratory flow.

The migrants that arrive by boat from Indonesia tend to be Afghans, Iranians and Iraqis, while  there are boats that arrive directly from Sri Lanka crossing the Indian Ocean. In most cases the vessels are not sea worthy and do not have a trained crew, so these people put themselves at a great risk. The study also mentions that Australia as a country does not have an agency, law enforcement or migration-focused  institution that publishes boarder related deaths. It's estimated that between 2000-2014: 1.494 (p 186. FJ) boarder related deaths, this figure includes missing at sea and 96% outside of Australia territorial waters. There is very low priority to recuperate bodies and if found there is no information givin to the public of sex, age or nationality.  

Indonesia (Transit Country, Springboard State): In transit to enter illegally in to Australia most migrants travel through this country