“The absence of critical services is placing refugees and migrants at great risk of harm and death and is also triggering dangerous secondary onward movements,” Vincent Cochetel, UNHCR special envoy for the central Mediterranean situation told journalists at a briefing Tuesday in Geneva. “Some refugees and migrants underestimate the risks, while many fall victim to the narratives of smugglers and traffickers,” he said. The report highlights the horrors faced by refugees and migrants who risk their lives moving on dangerous routes stretching from the East and Horn of Africa and West Africa towards North Africa’s Atlantic coast, and across the Central Mediterranean Sea to Europe. So, basically these are in key hubs, key crossing routes that are used by migrants and refugees,” he said. “We would need that to save more lives and bring back to safety people stranded or abandoned there,” Cochetel said.
