A record number of migrants from war-torn countries have died risking their lives trying to reach Europe searching for a better life, the United Nation's agency for refugees revealed Wednesday.
Hundreds of thousands of migrants and asylum seekers traveled across the Mediterranean Sea from Africa to Europe, which the U.N. agency described as the "most lethal route in the world," The Independent reported.
At least 4,000 people out of the 348,000 who crossed the sea this year in unsafe boats died of drowning, the UNHCR said.
For reasons including civil war, poverty and political unrest, migrants leave their homes headed for mostly Europe, specifically Italy and Spain. Many come from Somalia, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Asian countries including Syria. But if they survive the dangerous trip they are often blocked from entering the coastal border.
U.N. officials slammed the world's wealthy nations for focusing on keeping immigrants out instead of helping them.
"The lack of concern that we see in many countries for the suffering and exploitation of such desperate people is deeply shocking," said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Raad al-Hussein, The Independent reported.
"Rich countries must not become gated communities, their people averting their eyes from the bloodstains in the driveway."
News of the tragic deaths come as Italy's migrant rescue mission, Mare Nostrum, comes to a close at the end of the year. About 150,000 migrants have been rescued since the naval mission was set up 12 months ago after two boating disasters occurred in October 2013.
Once Mare Nostrum ends it will be replaced by an operation organized by Europe's border protection agency Frontex, the newspaper reported. But the Triton operation will only receive about $3.7 million a month, less than half of what Italy spent during Mare Nostrum.
U.K. officials said they will provide nothing more than a technical expert to Triton, saying the rescue missions will only encourage migrants to make the trip. A conservative Italian official also expressed the same sentiment.
"If entire families are risking their lives at sea today, it's because they have already lost everything else and see no other option to find safety," Antonio Guterres, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said in rebuttal.
