Illustrative stock photo (source: AP/TASR)
The event will take place in Grassalkovich garden at 17:00. It is organised by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) in cooperation with the Plea for Humanity initiative, the EC Representation in Slovakia, and the President’s Office.
“The candlelight vigil will be a commemoration of migrants who lost their lives or went missing during their exhausting and dangerous search for better opportunities and safety for them and, in many cases, also for their families,” said Zuzana Vatráľová, head of the IOM office in Slovakia, as quoted in the press release. “The vigil also points to the critical situation of abandoned families whose members had to migrate and could not return to their families for years.”
Between January 1 and December 11, 2015, altogether 5,086 people died on their quest for a better life, which is the most reported deaths of migrants in modern history, according to IOM.
The most people died in the Mediterranean area, where more than 3,670 people died when trying to get to Europe. Hundreds of migrants also died in the Bay of Bengal in southeast Asia, but also when trying to cross the borders between Mexico and the USA, and in Europe.
“Everybody can express solidarity with the deceased migrants, whom we will remember in all countries across the globe on December 18, with lighting a candle in their windows,” Vatráľová added.
