Tunis: Irregular migration is considered one of the challenges facing governments and societies in the modern era, and its causes and means have varied, while the risks confronting migrants along their long odysseys have increased in recent years, whether by land or sea, casting them into the abyss of the unknown.
According to Qatar News Agency, the crossing of the Mediterranean Sea by irregular migrants, or their attempt to ride the waves and whitecaps of the Atlantic Ocean to reach Europe, entails grave risks for those who venture across without adequate precautions. These routes are considered by far the shortest and closest means of realizing the dream of reaching Europe, making them by far the most dangerous for migrants, according to figures from the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
Hardly a week goes by without reports of boats carrying migrants sinking or of bus accidents. Against this backdrop, Tunisia announced last Sunday that the bodies of 12 migrants had been recovered from the sea after a boat carrying irregular migrants sank off Tunisia's southeastern coast. Mauritania's coast guard also announced last Friday that it had rescued over 300 migrants, including 40 children, after currents swept their boat off the Mauritanian coast in the Atlantic Ocean.
These two incidents, along with dozens of similar accidents, prompted the relief organization SOS MEDITERRANEE last Monday to sound the alarm and call for greater protection for migrants. The organization also denounced what it described as "growing threats and harassment" against migrants crossing the Mediterranean Sea and the rescue vessels assisting them.
MEDITERRANEE said it had recorded a "significant increase" in the presence of unidentified speedboats linked to armed groups at sea, interdicting boats carrying refugees. IOM said this month that deaths in the central Mediterranean had surged even as the number of migrants undertaking these perilous journeys had declined, owing to European countries' adoption of stricter migration policies.
The UN organization warned that the number of people killed or missing during the first four months of this year had reached 821, an increase of 111% compared with the same period in 2025, noting that the same period also saw a 46% decline in the number of migrants crossing the Mediterranean, to 8,577.
This life-threatening phenomenon stems from multiple factors, including smugglers engaged in human trafficking, weather conditions, and technical problems often caused by engine failures resulting from the age of the boat, compounded by overloading. In addition, some boats lose their way in open waters, as happened with a boat that departed from Gambia for Spain last month and endured a harrowing ordeal after becoming lost in the Atlantic Ocean off the Mauritanian coast.
It remained adrift for 25 days, an ordeal that ended with 143 people on board missing or dead, while only 38 people survived, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Flotsam from the boat was left drifting in the surrounding waters, underscoring the scale of the tragedy. The number of boats reaching Spain's shores, one of the main destinations for migrants traveling by sea, fell 61% this year compared with 2025, reaching 4,400 arrivals as of July 15, according to figures released by the UN refugee agency.
Nevertheless, the number of people who have died or gone missing at sea remains alarmingly high, as incidents occur far from public view and often result in entire boats disappearing. Such incidents are nothing short of a humanitarian tragedy.
As such, IOM revealed that as many as 990 deaths had been recorded across the Mediterranean Sea in 2026, expressing concern over the rising number of people killed or missing in Mediterranean waters. Director General of IOM, Amy Pope, said these tragedies demonstrate, once again, that vast numbers of people continue to risk their lives along perilous routes.
Nayef Al Nabet, a nonresident fellow at the Middle East Council on Global Affairs, told the Qatar News Agency (QNA) that, although there are some shortcomings on the part of transit countries in fulfilling their responsibilities toward refugees, they lack the capabilities and institutions needed to handle such cases. This is amid destination countries' policies restricting the reception of migrants, which have placed mounting pressure on transit countries and turned them into what resembles a buffer zone between destination countries and migrant-origin countries, Al Nabet said.
He distributed the legal and moral responsibility for migrants' drownings among countries of origin, transit and destination, without overlooking the responsibility of smugglers, remarking that smugglers bear direct responsibility, but that there is an entire system driving people toward these perilous routes.
Countries of origin bear part of the responsibility when they fail to provide their citizens with a minimum level of stability and opportunities, Al Nabet highlighted, stating that transit countries bear responsibility for protecting people within their territories and waters, whereas the policies of destination countries directly influence the routes migrants choose.
He distinguished between preventing migration and redirecting it, clarifying that a country may declare that it has reduced crossings across its borders, but the reality is that the movement has shifted to another, more dangerous area.
Al Nabet further noted that, while recognizing states' right to control their borders, they are also required to open designated legal pathways for migration and employment, thereby narrowing smugglers' room for maneuver and ensuring the protection of lives.
Resolving this international problem shouldn't be confined to funding transit countries to control migration flows, he suggested, but should rather be based on shared responsibility, providing certain legal pathways, and organizing the return of those who have no legal basis to remain, while respecting legal procedures.
Lastly, Al Nabet said saving lives and mitigating the repercussions of this phenomenon for all countries lies in an integrated plan centered on information-sharing, combating smuggling networks, coordinating search-and-rescue operations, and establishing clear arrangements for post-rescue operations.
UN and international institutions have rallied to confront the dangers facing migrants and established programs to accommodate migrants, including the Assisted Voluntary Return and Reintegration (AVRR), which Tunisia executes in lockstep with the IOM and with funding from the European Union, Sweden, Norway and Denmark.
The efforts undertaken in this respect have resulted in the return of more than 25,000 people to their countries of origin, according to official data published by Tunisia's Foreign Ministry this month. Independent UN experts called for recognition of the international community's shared responsibility and for all necessary measures to halt human trafficking and ensure human rights-based responses, while the UNHCR issued its "Updated Strategy for Protection and Solutions and Funding Appeal" last April.
It called for stepped-up efforts to protect refugees and asylum-seekers embarking on sea journeys to prevent loss of life. The UN agency also called on states to ensure safe alternatives to dangerous crossings and to bend every effort to advance humanitarian action, development and peace in addressing challenges to protection and solutions.
Yet, all these steps, despite their success in reducing the number of casualties, haven't resolved the problem, as migrants' fates remain contingent on the countries concerned reaching consensus on how to address the intractable refugee issue, prompting coordination between countries of origin and receiving countries, under UN supervision and through cooperation among all parties based on good faith.