The Mediterranean sea has become a route for Illegal migrants coming from Africa to Europe.

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Over 280,000 people from Nigeria crossed the sea to Europe in 2014 while the number rose to 1.8 million in 2015 and over 420,000 persons were on record to have crossed illegally to Europe between January and September 2016

Off course, with the high numbers of migrant who successfully cross the sea, we cannot conclude it is  such an easy journey, there are a lot of bad sides to it.

Just in 2015 it was recorded that over 1,600 migrants lost their lives trying to cross the Mediterranean, on April 19, 2015, more than 600 refugees drowned in the Mediterranean when their boat capsized on its way from Africa to Italy. On April 12, 2015 about 400 people died in a separate shipwreck

The UN's International Organisation for Migration put the number of dead in the central Mediterranean route from all over African to Europe at more than 7,559 in 2016

Weeks ago 26 young Nigerian women and girls were retrieved from the Mediterranean Sea taken to Italy, and authorities fear that the number will surge as the weather warms.

The latest deaths bring the total number of deaths in the Mediterranean in 2017 to 2,925, compared with 4,305 during the same time last year.

Meanwhile a lot of questions have arise as to why people are of so much desperation to embark on such life threating journey which off course has always been affiliated with poverty and bad governance in African countries.

In addition here are some facts you should know about the Mediterranean sea.

1. The Mediterranean is the world's largest inland sea surrounded by Europe, Asia, and Africa.

2. The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Levant.

3. The Mediterranean Sea was important to the Roman Empire in that it was a vital trade link with other parts of the Empire, especially the Middle East and North Africa.

4. The Mediterranean is probably the most polluted ocean in the world. The United Nations Environment Programme has estimated that 650,000,000 tons of sewage, 129,000 tons of mineral oil, 60,000 tons of mercury, 3,800 tons of lead and 36,000 tons of phosphates are dumped into the Mediterranean each year.

5. Recorded dead and missing migrants by region, from 2014 - 2016, Region Year 2014 2015 2016 Total Mediterranean 425 1,827 2,515 4,767 South-East Asia 312 678 60 1,050 Horn of Africa 132 86 235 453 South-East Africa 268 10 24 302 North Africa and Sahara 56 28 98 182 United States‒Mexico border 54 44 69 167 Central America 60 25 25 110 Caribbean 18 47 11 76 Europe 8 20 23 51 Middle East 0 0 34 34 Other 1 15 10 26 Total 1,334 2,780 3,104 7,218

Sources: Wikipedia, IOM, Youtube

By Olanrewaju Rabiu