List of 33,293 Names Details Decades of Tragedy

Newspaper publishes name of every migrant who has perished trying to get to Europe since '93
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Nov 12, 2017 9:07 AM CST
List of 33,293 Names Details Decades of Tragedy
Migrants from a sinking inflatable dinghy try to board a Libyan coast guard ship during a rescue operation at sea in international waters off the coast of Libya on Monday, Nov. 6, 2017.   (Lisa Hoffmann/Sea-Watch via AP)

A German newspaper has published a list of 33,293 people it says died while trying to immigrate to Europe between 1993 and May of this year. The list, published by daily Der Tagesspiegel on Thursday, covered 46 pages and included names, ages, and countries of origin, when available, as well as how the victims died and their date of death. Often, though, they never were identified, reports the AP. One entry, citing the United Nations refugee agency, was for a 15-year-old boy who drowned on Nov. 15, 2016 when a rubber dinghy he was on with 23 others sank while trying to get from Libya to Europe. The newspaper said it wanted to document, "the asylum-seekers, refugees and migrants who died since 1993 as a consequence of the restrictive policies of Europe."

Some immigrants who succeeded in reaching Europe later died in violent attacks or killed themselves in custody while waiting to be deported back home. A 17-year-old Somali boy died when neo-Nazis in Germany forced him to jump off a tower on Oct 21, 2016. A 30-year-old man from Uganda committed suicide in an immigrant detention center in England. "We want to honor them," Der Tagesspiegel wrote. "And at the same time we want to show that every line tells a story...and that the list keeps getting longer, day by day." The vast majority of the people on the newspaper's list drowned in the Mediterranean Sea while trying to make their way to Europe. The most recent listings were for two unidentified people, one a child, and dated May 29, 2017. The entry says: "Two bodies found, 28 missing, drowned or stamped down in a panic when their boat sank off Libya."

(More migrants stories.)

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