Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what estimate he has made of the number of migrants departing from the Libyan coast who have drowned in the last two months.

The British Government monitors closely the number of migrants who cross the Mediterranean to Europe, or attempt this dangerous crossing, including via the Central Mediterranean route from Libya to Italy. The International Organisation for Migration's (IOM) publication 'Migration Flows to Europe – Quarterly Review, Q1 2018' states that there were 497 fatalities across the three Mediterranean routes (Central Route, Western Route from Morocco to Spain and Eastern Route from Turkey to Greece) from January to March 2018 compared with 803 for the same period last year. Despite this reduction, this shows the ongoing need to tackle the challenge of illegal migration and its consequences. The British Government will continue to engage proactively with the EU and internationally in pursuit of a whole of route approach to tacking this challenge.