27 migrants’ bodies, including children, were discovered in the Chad desert
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said that 27 migrants, including four children, were found dead in the Chadian desert, all of whom it claimed had perished of thirst.
The refugees left Moussoro, a town in west-central Chad, in a pick-up truck nearly a year and a half ago. It is thought that they got lost in the desert after the truck broke down and eventually perished from dehydration, the UN-affiliated organization said on Tuesday.
Chad is a landlocked nation that shares a border with Libya to the north and serves as a stopover for migrants traveling to the Mediterranean.
IOM reported that 110 migrant deaths, including these most recent fatalities, were registered in Chad during the eight years that migrants have been trying to traverse the Sahara Desert. However, because many deaths go unreported, it is believed that the real numbers are higher.
It stated that this year, approximately 150 migrants have perished in that desert.
According to Anne Kathrin Schaefer, IOM’s head of mission in Chad, “We are very grieved by this most recent tragedy and express our heartfelt sympathies to the migrants’ families.”
Without access to trustworthy information and secure migration routes, migrants will continue to travel on dangerous highways through the dangerously deep desert, which will have disastrous results, she said.
For many years, persons intending to reach Libya and other North African nations, from where they will attempt to cross the Mediterranean Sea to reach Europe, have used the country of Chad as a transit point. Conflict analysts claim that since 2016, pressure from member states of the European Union to deter illegal immigration has compelled migrants to travel over perilous routes, which has resulted in numerous fatalities.
According to Rida Lyammouri, senior fellow at the Policy Center for the New South, a Moroccan organization, “those migrants come from South Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Central African Republic, Nigeria, Cameroon, and other countries in the region that are willing to take the risks in the hope of reaching Northern Africa and ultimately Europe.”
To get around security personnel and human traffickers, they occasionally have to take riskier detours, and sometimes that risk could be fatal,” he said.
