Fatal Journeys: Tracking Lives Lost during Migration
1.8 Outline and chapter overviews Fatal Journeys: Tracking Lives Lost during Migration investigates how borderrelated deaths are documented, who is documenting them and what can be done to improve the evidence base to encourage informed accountability, policy and practice. The book is organized by region – or more specifically, by areas and migration routes known to have high numbers of migrant deaths. These include the route through Central America to the United States, with a focus on the United States–Mexico border region; the southern European Union bordering the Mediterranean; routes from sub-Saharan Africa to Northern Africa; routes taken by migrants emigrating from the Horn of Africa towards the Gulf or Southern Africa; and the waters surrounding Australia. Each chapter presents the most recent data on migrant deaths, discusses practices of counting and associated challenges, and suggests steps for improving documentation. The report does not attempt to cover every region of the world, and some regions, such as South America, for which it was more difficult to find data have been excluded. This does not imply, however, that migrant deaths are not occurring in such regions. In Chapter 2 Robin Reineke and Daniel Martínez discuss deaths along the United States–Mexico border and en route to the United States through Mexico. Using data from the United States Border Patrol, the Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner, studies conducted by several prominent scholars, and their own data from the Colibrí Center for Human Rights the authors piece together a picture of deaths along the border. The availability of relatively detailed data collected over the past two decades allows for some information on the demographics of the deceased, as well as information on the routes used over time, and rates of death along the border. Although it is recognized that deaths of migrants within Mexico occur in high numbers, often related to criminal activities of smugglers and drug cartels, estimates of numbers are vague and information is not systematically compiled. Chapter 3 focuses on border-related deaths in the Mediterranean. Authors Tamara Last and Thomas Spijkerboer provide recent data on deaths at sea and outline who is collecting this information and to what purposes counts are useful. In the absence of official data, groups tracking deaths often rely on media as a source of information, a method which comes with a set of shortcomings and challenges. The authors discuss options of alternative sources of data, such as that generated through the processes of registering, investigating and burying the dead in States bordering the Mediterranean. The dangers faced by migrants travelling from sub-Saharan Africa through to Northern Africa are the subject of Chapter 4, written by Christopher Horwood
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