Latest migrant disaster highlights economic turmoil in Egypt

For a sixth day, Egyptian rescuers pulled bodies from the water after a fishing boat packed with migrants capsized eight miles from the Rosetta coastline. Crews scooped the sunken vessel from the Mediterranean seabed on Tuesday, and a local official confirmed a death toll of more than 200 people, all bound for Western Europe.

“Initial information indicates that the boat sank because it was carrying more people than its limit,” a senior security official in northern Beheira province told Reuters. With hundreds of migrants packed tightly below deck, and rumors of some traveling inside the boat’s industrial-sized refrigerator, most on board had no way to escape.

According to the BBC, Egyptian security forces have arrested four crewmen “on suspicion of involuntary manslaughter and human trafficking.”

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) estimates about 450 passengers were on board, and close to 67 percent are dead.

“It is one of the worst tragedies of this year,” IOM spokesman Joel Millman said during a briefing in Geneva. “We are concerned about what this says for the rest of the season as the weather turns cold and seas get more difficult.”

In recent months, Egypt has replaced Libya as a hotspot for North African refugees setting sail across the Mediterranean. This year alone, Egyptian officials have detained more than 4,600 migrants attempting to reach Europe from Egypt, according to a recent statement from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

According to Egyptian officials, passengers aboard the now-sunken fishing boat came from Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Egypt, and Sudan. Survivors included mostly unaccompanied Egyptian minors and single men in their 20s, likely seeking jobs in Western Europe.

Egypt’s economy has been on the decline since autocrat Hosni Mubarak’s ouster in 2011. The spiraling political instability has left the state wracked by domestic and international debt, with a plunging Egyptian pound and rising unemployment.

On Monday, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi urged patience while claiming his government is doing everything possible to provide jobs and secure borders: “There is hope … especially in this place where the migrant boat sank, but we can’t overcome all obstacles and put an end to them in one, two, or four years.”

El-Sisi pleaded with restive Egyptian youth to remain in the country and help with its future development.

But many say the Egyptian military, which backs el-Sisi, is too entangled in trade and retail industries, facing ridicule most recently for promising to personally supervise baby formula imports. The president, a former army general, claims the military’s heavy trade intervention is part of his plan to rebuild Egypt. Critics say the military is preoccupied with economic projects and distracted from core duties—such as securing Egypt’s porous borders.

Migration analysts predict the overall rate of migrant fatalities, further swollen by the Rosetta coast death toll, could easily top 2015 as the deadliest year for refugees at sea. More than 3,500 refugees have drowned in the Mediterranean in 2016, a marked increase when compared to the same time last year, according to a recent report in The Guardian.