Avril 2016 – Hijra Nr. 1 5 Articles académiques Deaths at the Borders: Evidence from the Southern External Borders of the EU Authors: Tamara Last MSc & Prof. Dr. Thomas Spijkerboer & Orçun Ulusoy 1. Introduction The last couple of years have seen a surge in interest and attention to the issues relating to boat migration in the Mediterranean region. 1 While the numbers of people making the attempt, and those who have gone missing or been found dead, are reported to have increased quite dramatically from previous years, 2 this is by no means a new phenomenon. Indeed, people have been risking their lives to enter the EU by crossing the southern external borders without authorisation since the 1990s (even earlier in the Strait of Gibraltar). While we know this to be true, there is scant data available to analyze the trends of this phenomenon, and to determine which policy-driven or other factors increase or decrease migrant mortality in the Mediterranean region. In creating the Deaths at the Borders Database for the Southern EU External Borders, we sought to – at least partially – fill this gap by collecting and making publically available all evidence relating to migrant bodies processed by local authorities in Spain, Gibraltar, Italy, Malta and Greece. The Deaths at the Borders Database is an Ǯevidence-baseǯ of migrant deaths covering the southern EU external border regions for the period 1990-2013. It contains individualized information about each person who died attempting to migrate irregularly to the EU by crossing the external borders without authorization, and whose 1 For example: ‘The Mediterranean Migration Crisis: Why People Flee, What the EU Should Do’ ( Human Rights Watch, 19 June 2015) <www.hrw.org/report/2015/06/19/mediterranean-migration-crisis/why-people-flee-what- eu-should-do> (accessed 11 December 2015); ‘Migrants crossing Mediterranean into Europe hit 150,000’ (Aljazeera, 10 July 2015) <www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/07/migrants-crossing-mediterranean-europe-hit- 150000-150710124934065.html> (accessed 11 December 2015) 2 FRONTEX reported a 164% increase in unauthorized entries along the EU’s external borders in 2014 as compared with 2013; and in their latest Risk Analysis report for the second quarter of 2015, they report a 140% increase compared to the second quarter of 2014. Sources: FRONTEX Risk Analysis Unit, Annual Risk Analysis 2014 (Warsaw: FRONTEX, April 2015) <frontex.europa.eu/assets/Publications/Risk_Analysis/Annual_Risk_Analysis_2015.pdf> (accessed 11 December 2015); FRONTEX Risk Analysis Unit, FRAN Quarterly: Quarter 2 – Apirl-June 2015 (Warsaw: FRONTEX, September 2015) <frontex.europa.eu/assets/Publications/Risk_Analysis/FRAN_Q2_2015_final.pdf> (accessed 11 December 2015). Other organisations are also reporting sharp increases in unauthorized migration into Europe, especially in the Mediterranean region. See, for example: ‘Mediterranean Crisis 2015 at six months: refugee and migrant numbers highest on record’ (UNHCR, 1 July 2015) <www.unhcr.org/5592b9b36.html> (accessed 11 December 2015); ‘Missing Migrants Project’ (IOM, 11 December 2015) <missingmigrants.iom.int/> (accessed 14 December 2015)