'More people displaced because of climate change than because of conflicts,' says UN migration chief

The number of asylum seekers arriving in Europe has skyrocketed in 2023. More than 40,000 undocumented people have crossed the Mediterranean Sea so far this year: one of the highest rates since the 2015 migration crisis.

The first quarter of 2023 was also the deadliest for migrants crossing the Mediterranean since 2017. Some 700 people have either died or gone missing in the first three months of the year en route.

To discuss Europe's response to this, Euronews' International Correspondent Anelise Borges spoke to António Vitorino, Director General of the United Nations' International Organization for Migration (IOM).

Anelise Borges, Euronews International Correspondent: This is actually not a new, impending crisis. This is yet another chapter of a crisis that I feel like we’ve been seeing unfold in Europe for more than eight years now. What is your organisation witnessing specifically in the Central Mediterranean?

António Vitorino, Director General, IOM: "The Central Mediterranean has been a growing route to Europe, constantly. Even during the pandemic, the figures kept on the rise. And as you said, the figures of the first three months of this year are four times higher than last year - [in] the same period.

"So it’s quite clear that there are a number of travelling routes towards Europe that are arriving now, to Italy mainly. And Italy is overburdened with this pressure."

Anelise Borges, Euronews International Correspondent: I want to read something the IOM has put out: “Delays in State-led rescues on the Central Mediterranean route were a factor in at least six incidents, or shipwrecks, this year leading to the deaths of at least 127 people. The complete absence of response to a seventh case claimed the lives of at least 73