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STORY: UN / MIGRANT DEATHS
TRT: 2.31
SOURCE: UNIFEED - UNTV
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGAUGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 03 DECEMBER 2014, NEW YORK CITY / RECENT
RECENT – NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior United Nations headquarters
03 DECEMBER 2014, NEW YORK CITY
2. Med shot, journalist
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Leonard Doyle, Spokesperson and Head of Communications for the International Organization for Migration (IOM):
“There has been a decrease in the numbers of deaths in the US borders this year, which is relatively well known. The Mediterranean has spiked at least threefold, and off the coast of Australia there are zero recorded deaths, but that’s not necessarily telling you the whole story. It just tells you that nobody has been recorded dying within sight of Christmas Island. But we have no knowledge, but we have our suspicions about what’s happening further out at sea in international waters.”
4. Med shot, journalist
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Leonard Doyle, Spokesperson and Head of Communications for the International Organization for Migration (IOM):
“We are surprised that there is not more public interest, more public indignation. We are surprised there is not more investigation into the deliberate drowning of migrants. In September, some 500 were lost when their ship was rammed by smugglers because of a dispute with the captain. Now, it’s difficult to investigate and prosecute because it is happening in international waters. People who died then were primarily Palestinians who left Gaza.”
6. Med shot, journalists
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Leonard Doyle, Spokesperson and Head of Communications for the International Organization for Migration (IOM):
“We are drawing attention to the really shockingly cynical treatment of these migrants, primarily by smuggling groups. We think that they are making up to two million dollars per large shipment of migrants. One of the shipments last weekend was 900 migrants who came ashore, so that is not a bad rate of return in today’s tough economy. In fact it is the same rate of return, if not higher as was made in the slave period when banks in New York were financing slave ships.”
8. Med shot, journalists
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Leonard Doyle, Spokesperson and Head of Communications for the International Organization for Migration (IOM):
“Any help we can get, from these social media companies in particular, will be received with open arms because we are very, very close to the problem, and it is a difficult and time consuming and very confidential affair. And we certainly need support, there is no question about it, and we are identifying a new reality that people, as one would expect, are turning to these forms of communication in order to leave countries they are being trafficked through these forms of communication. And we think it would be, you know, a very good investment, a very good social investment by these social media companies to work with IOM.”
10. Wide shot, end of presser
A new report by the International Organization on Migration (IOM) indicates that 4,077 migrants died in 2014 trying to reach their destination, almost double the recorded figures from a year before.
The report, Fatal Journeys, Tracking Lives Lost during Migration shows that at least 40,000 have perished since the year 2000, and actual figures are probably much higher.
Presenting the report in New York, IOM’s Spokesperson and Head of Communications, Leonard Doyle, said “there has been a decrease in the numbers of deaths in the US borders this year” while “the Mediterranean has spiked at least threefold.”
Doyle expressed surprise that there is “not more public interest, more public indignation” as well as “more investigation into the deliberate drowning of migrants.”
In September, he noted, 500 mostly Palestinian migrants from Gaza “were lost when their ship was rammed by smugglers because of a dispute with the captain.”
The IOM official noted the report draws attention “to the really shockingly cynical treatment of these migrants, primarily by smuggling groups.”
He said smugglers are making “up to two million dollars per large shipment of migrants” the same rate of return, “if not higher as was made in the slave period when banks in New York were financing slave ships.”
Doyle explained that Facebook and other social media outlets are being used by smugglers to advertise to migrants.
He said “any help we can get, from these social media companies in particular, will be received with open arms because we are very, very close to the problem, and it is a difficult and time consuming and very confidential affair” and added that it would be “a very good social investment by these social media companies to work with IOM.”
The report examines how data on migrant deaths is collected and shared in different parts of the world. It shows that no organization at the global level is currently responsible for systematically monitoring the number of deaths that occur.
