Introduction

In recent years, dramatic increases in global irregular migration have led states to step up their border control tactics in an effort to combat unregulated entry to their territory. Land borders in popular destination countries are now virtually impermeable, prompting desperate asylum-seekers, refugees and other irregular migrants to seek alternative means of escape from situations of entrenched poverty, famine, natural disaster, armed conflict, civil strife or persecution. For many of these individuals, an increasingly relied-upon alternative has been to undertake journeys by sea. Despite the terrible dangers and mounting death tolls, figures indicate that irregular maritime migration is on the rise. In 2007 alone, it is estimated that approximately 6,000 individuals died or disappeared in the crossing from North Africa to the Canary Islands. In the same year, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimated that another 1,400 were reported dead or missing in the Gulf of Aden between Somalia and Yemen; and nearly 500 deaths occurred between North Africa and Italy. Because such figures rely exclusively on confirmations of reported deaths, they are believed vastly to under-represent actual numbers of persons drowned or lost at sea.

The potential magnitude of the problem can be somewhat inferred from the numbers of confirmed arrivals by sea. In 2006, 21,000 persons reached Italy from Libya; more than 30,000 made the journey from West Africa to Spain's Canary Islands; and at least another 29,000 crossed the Gulf of Aden from the Horn of Africa to reach Yemen.