Migration and Death
Extreme Risks Taken are Signs of Global Apartheid
Migration, whether documented or undocumented, can often be beneficial to both sending and receiving countries. And for people around the world, it is often the only real option for significantly improving their own lives and the lives of their families. Many succeed in doing do, despite anti-immigrant measures taken by the rich countries that are the most desired locations.
Recent reports, however, increasingly feature the desperation of many migrants who risk death to escape their situations. Whether they can technically be classified as asylum seekers or economic migrants, the extreme risks taken signal the extremes of human inequality based on the accidents of birth and citizenship.
This issue of AfricaFocus Notes features three such cases from different parts of the world. The first highlights those seeking to reach the Canary Islands from the Atlantic coast of Africa, the second the perilous passage through the Darien Gap in Panama, and the third the southern border between the United States and Mexico.
The first article is from the Weekly Bulletin of the European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE). The second from Human Rights Watch, and the third from the Daily Wildcat, the student newspaper of the University of Arizona, my undergraduate alma mater.
The issue of deaths in the desert on the Arizona/Mexico border is not a new issue. My mother was active in No More Deaths first created in 2004 to provide support.
Similar deaths have also been reported recently in the Aegean Sea and in the Red Sea.
Bill (William) Minter
Personal Note
My father-in-law Jim Sunshine died on December 27, at the age of 99, at the Kendal retirement home in Oberlin, Ohio. He was active, healthy, and sharp up to mid-November. As his son-in-law, I could not ask for a better role model of how to keep an open mind to new ideas and new ways of doing things into deep old age. For more see Cathy´s blog Third Age and the obituary in the Providence Journal, where he spent 44 years as a journalist and editor.
Atlantic Route and Spain: 2023 Marked as the Deadliest Year, Fatal Crossing Attempts, Rescue Efforts and Interceptions by Spain’s African Partners Continue
12th January 2024
https://ecre.org/media/ecre-weekly-bulletin/
The NGO Walking Borders has reported that around 7618 women, men and children died attempting to reach Spain. Meanwhile, people continue to take perilous journeys using different migratory routes despite interceptions by Spain’s African partners and risk of death.
A new report by the NGO Walking Borders marked 2023 as the “deadliest year” since it began keeping records. According to the organisation, 18 people died every day on the different migratory routes leading to Spain. Up to 6618 people lost their lives on the Western Euro-African border, including 363 women and 384 girls and boys. This high number of recorded deaths confirms once again that the Canary Islands route is the “deadliest migratory region in the world”. Walking Borders also discovered that the most serious issues causing these tragedies are the prioritisation of border control over the duty of relief, the failure to activate search and rescue means with the necessary urgency, the increasingly common practice of passive searches, the impact of the externalisation of borders with third countries or the reduction of means intended for the protection of life. Journalist Txema Santana wrote on X: “Who are they? Who are the more than 6,000 people killed on the Canary Islands route? There is no name for the majority” (translated). She also introduced one of the identified victims: Moustapha Toumbou. He was a 34-year-old man who lived in Dakar from where his canoe left for Europe in September 2023. In 2023, 56,852 people attempted to enter Spain irregularly by sea or land, an 82.1% increase on the previous year, according to data from the Spanish Interior Ministry. Of them, 39,910 were counted off the Canary Islands’ coasts, 154.5 % more than in 2022. This high number of arrivals makes Spain the “second EU country with the most irregular entries”, a position which has been linked to the “big jump in small ships making the perilous journey from Senegal to the small Canary Island of El Hierro”. ECRE member organisation the Spanish Commission for Refugees (CEAR) wrote: “2023 has been the second year with the most arrivals to Spain by sea. More and more people have to risk their lives on deadly journeys due to the lack of legal and safe routes” while hoping for a new year where “no one has to risk their life to try to save it” (translated).
Meanwhile, fatal crossing attempts to reach Spain continue. On 7 January, Salvamento Marítimo vessel rescued a young man clinging to a truck tyre adrift in waters near Fuerteventura while transferring the occupants of a boat that he had helped minutes before. On 2 January, at least 248 migrants arrived in the Canary Islands after four separate rescue operations. On 3 January, the bodies of the five men who had remained on board a canoe that had been rescued on 30 December about 280 kilometers south of El Hierro with 15 survivors and in which between 30 and 40 people died when they were thrown overboard during the 15-day-long crossing. Journalist Santana wrote on X: “Almost 100 boats disappeared with all their occupants. There were more than 180 shipwrecks in the Sea of Deaths. And you know what: in 2024 people have already died and more will die. And some of this unfortunate reality may not be avoidable. But a good part yes” (translated). Meanwhile, on 31 December, the Moroccan navy, Spain’s “essential ally”, intercepted 44 sub-Saharan migrants who were attempting to reach the Canary Islands. According to the Moroccan media outlet MWN, upon interception, the rescued individuals received the necessary medical attention before being transported to the port of Dakhla. Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said recently that the Spanish police co-operation with several African countries “prevented the arrival in Spain of over 27,000 migrants in 2023” without identifying departures from African countries to Europe were being prevented. Marlaska said co-operation aimed at fighting migrant smuggling and the prevention of migrant departures means “having saved lives” as it prevents migrants from undertaking “dangerous sea crossings in difficult conditions.” Meanwhile, ECRE member organisations CEAR and Accem have called on the Spanish authorities to invest in countries of origin to reduce migratory pressure in addition to guaranteeing “legal and safe routes” for people who arrive in Spain by irregular means. Although it is “difficult” to determine the increase in migrant arrivals in Spain, CEAR emphasised that the pandemic had prevented a huge number of migrants from crossing to Europe but that they were now able to do so.
A 19-year-old young man who reportedly arrived in Spain by the sea route died on 10 January. “He had a residence and tried, with training, to be included in society, but the street ended up weighing him down. Few knew that he was homeless, like so many”, journalist Txema Santana wrote, adding that “pneumonia forced its way into his body and after several days in a coma he died this morning. The little boy had all the will.”
For further information:
ECRE, Atlantic Route and Spain: Increase of Arrivals to Canary Islands Amid Ongoing Deaths and Distress, Senegal Receives Drones & Guards from Spanish Government to Curb Boat Departures, December 2023
How the Treacherous Darien Gap Became a Migration Crossroads of the Americas
https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/10/10/how-treacherous-darien-gap-became-migration-crossroads-americas
From the tundra abutting the Arctic Ocean in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, to Tierra del Fuego off the southern tip of the South American mainland, the Pan-American Highway allows a driver to almost cover the length of the Americas on a single road. The stretch of asphalt is broken in only one place: the roughly 60-mile Darien Gap. The highway was never completed through the approximately 10,000-square-mile tropical jungle that covers the northernmost zone of Colombia and a significant portion of Panama’s southernmost province. Indeed, no road runs through it at all. Nor are there bridges, cellphone service, or other infrastructure that would facilitate easy crossing. The region hosts some of the highest mountain ridges in Panama, as well as hundreds of rivers and heavily forested valleys. It is inhabited only sparsely, mostly by Indigenous communities and criminal gangs that benefit from the absence of government authorities.
Yet for all that it lacks, the Darien Gap has in recent years become a major transit route for irregular migration. Despite the jungle’s dangers and immense hurdles, it remains the only land-based pathway connecting South America to Central America. For asylum seekers and other migrants heading to the United States and other northern destinations, as dangerous as it is, the Darien Gap has lately become the primary passageway.
Movement in and through the Darien Gap is not entirely new. Panamanian authorities have been tracking some migrant arrivals since 2010, and there are recorded cases of crossings more than a decade prior. However, until 2021 the numbers of people crossing the jungle were relatively inconsequential in comparison with other migratory pathways in the Americas. That year, more than 130,000 migrants successfully crossed the jungle on foot, up from an average of fewer than 11,000 per year during the previous decade. In 2022, arrivals jumped to almost 250,000 people. That number was surpassed in just the first eight months of 2023, and more than 500,000 people are on pace to cross by the end of this year.
In response, governments on both sides of the border have agreed to address migration through the Darien in recent months. They have also received significant support and pressure from the United States, where leaders see the jungle as a chokepoint to prevent future migrant arrivals at the U.S.-Mexico border. But the increasing movement of individuals through the Darien, even after the governments of Colombia, Panama, and the United States have vowed to crack down, demonstrates that policies to thwart migration are going to encounter steep challenges. More than 81,000 people were recorded crossing the Darien Gap in August, according to data obtained by the authors—the highest number on record.
With tension rife at border, Pima County continues to track migrant deaths
January 3, 2024
Credit: Zi Yang Lai. A view of the Mexico-United States border on Jan 16, 2016
The Tucson sector is now the most dangerous sector in the southwest for migrants as well as the busiest with over 64,638 people crossing this past November, according to Border Patrol statistics.
Migrant deaths are not a recent issue. Since the year 2000, the number of migrants who die in the desert north of the border has climbed year after year.
A possible explanation for this trend emerges in the Border Patrol’s militarization of the border with increased presence and barriers to entry gaining traction in the 1990s. This has led those looking to cross to more isolated areas with less Border Patrol presence.
This means the terrain they cross is more rugged and the journey more dangerous. Before the year 2000, the three counties near the border (Pima, Santa Cruz and Cochise) averaged only 20 remains found per year combined, according to Pima County Medical Examiner Dr. Gregory Hess. However, by 2002, this number rose to 151, and in 2020 it reached a high of 223, according to Humane Border’s data.
Last year, Humane Borders reported 173 migrant remains found, and according to Hess, 2023 is on track to surpass last year’s total.
“For us here locally, we won’t consider us being back to baseline unless we are at less than 20, but I don’t see that happening anytime soon,” Hess said.
According to Hess, Pima County has been at the forefront when it comes to tracking migrant deaths along the U.S. border with Mexico. Not only does the county examine bodies found locally, they also examine bodies that come from Cochise and Santa Cruz counties and keep electronic records of those that are determined to be migrants. Due to this, anyone can search those records to find information about these deaths, which are not tracked in the same way in other states like Texas or California.
According to Hess, when remains are found in the desert, whether they are found by Border Patrol, ranchers, hikers or hunters, law enforcement examines the scene initially, and then the remains are brought into the Pima County Medical Center for a post-mortem examination.
“We’ll issue a death certificate, even if we don’t know the cause of death, just to tell the government that someone died, and then we will work through the process of trying to identify them,” Hess said.
This identification can look vastly different on a case-by-case basis, and requires adaptability and attention to detail from those responsible.
“It can be very different depending on the condition of the remains. If someone is in good condition that means that they weren’t in the desert for very long, usually someone that is traveling with them called for help, but help didn’t come in time,” Hess said. “We can do a full examination on someone like that and have a definitive cause of death that is oftentimes related to the environment.”
These examinations often necessitate conversations with those who knew the victim.
“It is not absolute, but we can usually identify someone like that, it just may take a little bit of time because it involves a conversation with family and with the consulate,” Hess said.
There can be other challenges with identifying remains. Many bodies brought in will have documents on them, such as ID cards, but it is not a guarantee that the documents identify who they are.
“It provides a clue to who they could be, but people can use false documents or identification cards, or they may have a reason to not identify themselves. So just because you find an ID in someone’s pockets doesn’t mean it is always them, but it is a place to start,” Hess said. “If you have a name now associated with those remains, based on a card or phone number, you now have a starting point to talk to the consulate or [non-governmental organizations] who collect missing person reports to see if there is any information floating around about that person.”
Remains that are sent to Pima County are not always clear cut. Sometimes there may be nothing but bones to work with, and the only way to identify them is through DNA testing.
A cause of death is also much harder to obtain, due to not knowing how long the bones have been in the desert, which can range from months to years in some cases. DNA testing is also very expensive, and that cost is not something that the medical center can easily cover.
“We do not have any internal county funding for DNA. We can cut samples for DNA, but we need to identify funding to pay to send those samples to the lab to have a DNA profile generated, and that is not even counting getting it from their family, or getting the two samples compared. That is what is so time consuming about it,” Hess said.
Many remains brought into the center will have documents on them, but the personal effects do not always reveal the identity of the remains. (Colton Allder)
Pima County writes grants for funding about every two years, and there are currently 300 samples waiting to be tested, according to Hess. In total, there are 600 skeletal remains stored at the center, along with 800 unidentified remains that were previously cremated in the past when the county had a different policy for unidentified remains.
“That’s good, for a couple of reasons. We don’t have to pay a funeral vendor to cremate or bury them. If we need to examine someone again, we can, and if we figure out who they are, then we can return those remains to the family rather than hand them a bag of ashes. It just has a different feel to it and most people prefer to have the skeletal remains,” Hess said.
The medical center is going to continue this policy for the near future, according to Hess. The center will be moving into a new building sometime next year that will have more space for storage, with a centrally located cooler to store remains that will be more cost-effective than the current set up of differently located coolers.
“I think what we’re doing will get a little bit better with the new facility. We will have a better space to do the work that we do, a better place to store the remains and a better experience for people that are interested in this process than we have right now,” Hess said. “Other than that I think we intend to do things the way we’ve been doing it, and I highly suspect that not much is going to change in the near future.”
The choice Stay for SURE death Travel with impossible odds to try to reach places that DONT want you Without a doubt , the disgrace of our global community