By: Francois Franceschini Lajara
“If you do not yet see the beauty in yourself, be like the sculptor of a statue that must be beautiful. Sculpt the marble, polish it, remove all that is superfluous, until you can recognize the true good.” Plotinus
In fact, for humans, migration is as old as the existence of humanity itself. Throughout history, people have migrated for different reasons; in search of a better life, new opportunities or to flee conflict and seek safety, or simply to find new opportunities. It may come as a surprise to people that most migration is regular, safe, and orderly, region-focused, and often directly work-related.
The current estimate by the United Nations is that there are about 281 million international migrants in the world, equivalent to 3.6% of the world’s population. However, an increasing number of people are being displaced, inside and outside their country of origin, due to conflict, violence, political or economic instability, as well as climate change and other disasters. But what the news media captures is only part of the story. Migration is an issue that has been profoundly affected by misinformation and politicization, and dominant narratives have moved far away from balanced and accurate accounts of migration, both its simple truths and its complex situation-specific realities.
Internal migration is now a normal phenomenon, and more and more people move from one state to another within the same country in search of better opportunities and quality of life. Among the different international migratory routes in the world, four stand out; The Central Mediterranean Route, Africa’s Internal Routes, the U.S.-Mexico Border, and the Asia Routes. In the Central Mediterranean route, in Tunisia, which with Libya is the main point of departure for migrants seeking to reach Europe via the central Mediterranean route, there is a cemetery reserved for those who drown at sea. According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), this is the most dangerous route for migrants. It is estimated that more than 19,500 have died trying to navigate the Medi-terranean Sea from North Africa to Europe between 2014 and 2022. Frontex, the European Border and Coast Guard (the equivalent of the U.S. Coastguard in North America), reports that almost 300,000 people have been rescued trying to use this route between 2015 and 2022.
For many people of the Africa’s Internal Routes, who wish to migrate to European countries, the journey begins crossing their own continent that involves a long crossing of the Sahara Desert on their way to the countries of North Africa. Harsh environmental conditions are a major threat: IOM estimates that the Saharan crossing was responsible for the deaths of nearly 5,400 people between 2014 and 2022. An-other serious threat to migrants is the number of smuggling gangs operating in the region who also contributes to the deaths that have been recorded across the Sahara Desert.
The U.S.-Mexico border has been in focus for many by the debate that has been unleashed by different perspectives on how the challenge of orderly migration should be met. Although not all migratory routes in the Americas are to reach the United States, that is the main goal for people from marginalized communities seeking new development opportunities. The U.S.-Mexico border presents them with a major challenge: The region is known for its inhospitable geography, including desert regions, and migrants often try to cross into the U.S. through the dangerous Rio Grande that flows along much of the border. Drowning is one of the leading causes of death on the route, which IOM estimates have claimed more than 3,000 lives between 2014 and 2022. According with the U.S. Custom Border Patrol CBP, since May 12, 2023, to January 31, 2024, DHS has removed or returned over 520,000 individuals, the vast majority of whom crossed the southwest border, including more than 87,000 individual family members. CBP’s total encounters along the southwest border in January 2024 were 176,205. To prevent the loss of life, CBP initiated a Missing Migrant Program in 2017 that locates noncitizens reported missing, rescues individuals in distress, and reunifies decedents’ remains with their families in the border region. In January, the U.S. Border Patrol conducted 245 rescues, totaling 1,611 rescues in FY 2024.The little mentioned Asian Routes also involve large internal migrations in the Asian territory. Four out of ten migrants in the world in 2020 were born in Asia, and that continent has several important migration routes . Nearly 5,000 people have been killed or gone missing in Asia in the past eight years. Most of those deaths are of Rohingya and Bangladeshi migrants who use the sea route to cross the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea to reach a safe haven in neighboring countries or perhaps try to reach Europe. The adversities they face during the journey can be extreme, as on other routes, these migrants are often exploited by human smuggling gangs. Another problematic route is at the Iran-Turkey border, which has seen an unprecedented influx of Afghan migrants since the Taliban seized power of the region. According to UNHCR, the U.N. refugee agency, more than two million Afghans have registered as refugees in Iran and surrounding countries.
The current border for the United States and Mexico is 3169 km long. It passes through four U.S. states and six Mexican states. A good part of the southern border is in the Sonoran Desert. It is an inhospitable place, but at the same time it is home to a dense biodiversity, where both flora and fauna are elusive, stealthy but present in all spaces and schedules. The Sonoran Desert is a vast place that is characterized by the harshness of the elements and natural forces. In the Sonoran Desert, at least 686 people died or disappeared in 2022.