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According to the UN Migration Agency, at least 8,565 migrants lost their lives on land and sea routes worldwide last year. It is the highest number since the U.N. migration agency began counting deaths in 2014
According to the UN Migration Agency, at least 8,565 migrants lost their lives on land and sea routes worldwide last year. It is the highest number since the U.N. migration agency began counting deaths in 2014.
Mediterranean Sea crossing accounted for the highest number of casualties. The death figures increased to 3,129 in 2023 from 2,411 in 2022. However, that was well below the 5,136 deaths recorded in the Mediterranean region in 2016. That year, huge numbers of Syrians, Afghans, and others fled conflicts from their homelands toward Europe. The 2023 count was nearly 20% more than the previous year.
Most of the deaths last year, about 3,700, were due to drowning in the high sea while crossing. Many migrants vanished and their whereabouts are still not known. They are presumed dead, although their bodies have to be recovered. The agency also noted that improved methods of data collection should be resorted to arrive at an accurate number of people who are crossing the sea, how many safely land shores, and the number of casualties.
The biggest jump in deaths in recent years was in Asia. Over 2,100 migrants died last year, 68 more than in 2022. That was primarily because of increased deaths among Afghans fleeing to places like neighbouring Iran. A large number of Rohingya refugees also lost their lives on maritime routes.
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A record number of deaths occurred in Africa last year — 1,866 — mostly in the Sahara Desert and along the sea route to the Canary Islands. The agency cited difficulties in data collection in remote areas, such as in the dangerous Darien Gap between Colombia and Panama, where many migrants pass from South America on their way north.
IOM’s Missing Migrants Project, which tallies the figures, was set up in 2014 after a surge in deaths in the Mediterranean and an influx of migrants on the Italian island of Lampedusa off Tunisia.
