Refugee death toll in Mediterranean hits record high in 2016: UN agency

The UN refugee agency, also known as the UNHCR, says the number of refugees who died in the Mediterranean Sea on their way to Europe in 2016 has reached an all-time high.

"We can confirm that at least 3,800 people have been reported dead or missing in the Mediterranean Sea so far this year, making the death toll in 2016 the highest ever recorded," said the UN refugee agency spokesman, William Spindler, on Wednesday.

The alarming surge, which surpassed the death toll of 3,771 for 2015, comes despite a considerable decline in the number of refugees crossing the Mediterranean in 2016.

More than a million people reached Europe via the Mediterranean in 2016, while fewer than 330,000 crossings have been reported so far this year.

The number of refugees heading to Europe has declined as the European Union in March signed a controversial deal with Turkey aimed at stemming the flow of refugees into the continent by forcing those deported from the EU to either be located in Turkey or go back to the original country of departure.

Since then, the route between Libya and Italy across the central Mediterranean has become the main way as pathways to Greece have been closed down.

According to the agency, the likelihood of perishing in the shorter route between Turkey and Greece was one in 88, while one death for every 47 arrivals was reported in the most perilous route between Libya and Italy in 2016.

The UNHCR attributed the surge mainly to the overcrowded “lower quality vessels, flimsy inflatable rafts” often used by smugglers.

25 refugees found dead in Mediterranean Sea, MSF says

Earlier on Wednesday, Doctors Without Borders, known as the MSF by its French acronym, said 25 bodies had been retrieved from a refugee boat during a rescue operation in the Mediterranean.

The MSF said its ship, Bourbon Argos, found the bodies aboard the vessel 26 nautical miles off Libya late on Tuesday. The vessel was carrying 107 survivors. The victims had apparently been burned, suffocated or drowned.

The recovery operation, which took place with the help of a team from the Berlin-based non-governmental organization Sea-Watch, took a long time as the boat was flooded with a mixture of fuel and seawater.

"The mixture of water and fuel was so foul that we could not stay on the boat for long periods. It was horrible," said Michele Telaro, the MSF project leader.

The MSF also saved 139 people aboard another dinghy on Tuesday. Sea-Watch recovered a body in another operation.

The Italian Coast Guard reported that 500 refugees were rescued from overcrowded boats on Tuesday.

Most of the asylum seekers that have triggered the unprecedented influx of refugees Europe has been dealing with over the past few years flee conflict-ridden zones in North Africa and the Middle East, particularly Syria. Many blame Western policies toward the conflicts for the refugee crisis.

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