Dead, missing migrants in Mediterranean tripled this summer: UN

PARIS, Sept 29 (AFP/Reuters): The number of Europe-bound migrants who died or went missing in the Mediterranean this summer has tripled since last year, the UN said Friday, adding it had become a "cemetery" for children.
Between June and August, at least 990 people perished or vanished trying to get to Europe from northern Africa, compared to 334 deaths over the same months in 2022, the UN's children's agency UNICEF said.

At least 289 children have died so far this year while trying to make the dangerous crossing, said Nicola dell'Arciprete, UNICEF's country coordinator for Italy.
There were 11,600 unaccompanied minors among the migrants who arrived in Italy on makeshift vessels between January and September, up 60 percent from the first nine months of 2022.
"The Mediterranean has become a cemetery for children and their future," UNICEF's Regina De Dominicis said.
"The tragic toll of children dying in search of asylum and security in Europe is the result of political choices and a defective migration system," she said.
According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, 2,500 migrants died or went missing in the Mediterranean between January 1 and September 24, 50 percent more than in the same period last year.
A surge of migrants arriving at Italy's Lampedusa island earlier this month -- with some 8,500 arrivals in just three days -- will likely be repeated in coming weeks, said dell'Arciprete.
"We know that these are figures that could even rise in the coming months because there are a number of conflicts, natural disasters or even climate events in the countries of origin or transit of these minors," he said.
Meanwhile, the number of people crossing the perilous Darien Gap linking Panama and Colombia has hit a record high of 400,000 in the year to September, official data showed, as migration to the United States intensified despite efforts to curb the flow.
More than half of those migrants were children and babies, Panama's security ministry said in a statement, adding that September alone saw the number of crossings increase by a fifth compared to the previous month.
The year-to-date figure of 402,300 migrants is almost double the number for the whole of 2022.
The United Nations had estimated in April that the number of migrants for the entire year would be 400,000.
Most of the migrants traversing the dangerous stretch of jungle are Venezuelans, with others from Ecuador, Haiti and other countries, Panama's security ministry has said.
Panama announced earlier this month measures to stop the increase in migration, including deporting more people with criminal records and a decrease in the number of days some tourists are allowed to stay in the country.
A Reuters report adds: When Carolina's captors arrived at dawn to pull her out of the stash house in the Mexican border city of Reynosa in late May, she thought they were going to force her to call her family in Venezuela again to beg them to pay $2,000 ransom.
Instead, one of the men shoved her onto a broken-down bus parked outside and raped her, she told Reuters. "It's the saddest, most horrible thing that can happen to a person," Carolina said.
A migrant advocate who assisted Carolina after the kidnapping, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity due to security concerns, confirmed all the details of her account.
The attack came amid an increase in sexual violence against migrants in the border cities of Reynosa and Matamoros, both major transit routes for immigrants seeking to enter the US, according to data from the Mexican government and humanitarian groups, as well as interviews with eight sexual assault survivors and more than a dozen local aid workers.
"The inhumane way smugglers abuse, extort, and perpetrate violence against migrants for profit is criminal and morally reprehensible," US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson Luis Miranda said in response to questions about the rise in reported rapes.
Criminal investigations into the rape of foreign nationals, excluding Americans, were the highest on record in the two cities this year, according to state data from 2014 to 2023 obtained by Reuters through freedom of information requests.
The US State Department considers Tamaulipas, where the two cities are located, to be the most dangerous state along the US-Mexico border.
Facing record illegal border crossings, US President Joe Biden's administration in May moved to a new system that required migrants to secure an appointment - via an app known as CBP One - to present themselves at a legal border crossing to enter the United States.
Nine experts, including lawyers, medical professionals, and aid workers, told Reuters the new system has had unintended consequences in the two cities, contributing to a spike in violence.