Case Study on the Mediterranean

Hi guys, so I was working on my first case study recently.

Feel free to leave a comment.

A new migrant rescue organization in Italy wants to start deploying large ships to the Mediterranean Sea to save incoming migrants from possible death in the sea. The organization wants to know the number of dead and missing migrants in the Mediterranean between 2016 and 2021, as well as the region that recorded the most deaths and disappearances, in order to guide their decision making. The organization needed answers to two questions:

1) The number of migrant deaths and disappearances that have occurred in the Mediterranean between January 2016 and August 2021.

2) The region with the most deaths and disappearances.

After clarifying the questions, I proceeded to think about the dataset I would need. I explored my options and decided to use the IOM Missing Migrants Project Mediterranean data as it was the most suitable option for my analysis.

Thereafter, I cleaned my data with MS Excel. I chose spreadsheets because I was working with a small data. I sorted and filtered my data using the Sort and Filter options, as I was only going to be working with incidents of deaths/disapperances

I then analysed and shared my data using Pivot Table and Pivot Charts. I chose these set of colours to create a minimal yet consistent mood and story. Here are my findings:

What are the variables used in the Missing

Migrants Project Mediterranean Data?

The date of the incident, the number of deceased and/or missing people, and the location of death are the minimum of information required to report an incident. If the information isn't accessible, the cell is left blank or marked "unknown".

Deaths

The total number of individuals confirmed dead in a single occurrence, as measured by the number of bodies found.

Disappearances

The total number of people who have gone missing and are presumed deceased. This variable is frequently recorded in shipwreck cases. By deducting the number of bodies discovered from a shipwreck and the number of survivors from the total number of migrants reported to have been on the boat, the number of missing is computed. Survivor migrants or bystanders may report this number. It is kept blank if no missing persons are reported.

Deaths/Disappearances

The total of dead and missing

Data Limitations

Obtaining complete and accurate coverage of migrant deaths in the Mediterranean has particular challenges. Because of the nature of any international crossing, it is very conceivable that migrants will vanish without a trace, particularly in circumstances when people are lost at sea or shipwrecks occur with no survivors. Hundreds of remains discovered on the Libyan coast that are unrelated to any known shipwreck, as well as numerous tales of shipwrecks with no survivors that are difficult to verify, are examples of this. This means that not only is the reported number of deaths and disappearances on these migratory routes likely undercounted, but the great majority of recorded cases include little to no information on the persons who die.