At least 63,285 people died or went missing on migrant routes worldwide between 2014 and 2023, with the majority of deaths caused by drowning, the UN migration agency said on Tuesday.
A report released by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in its Missing Migrants Project showed that the majority of deaths and disappearances – 28,854 – occurred in the Mediterranean, followed by Africa and Asia.
Nearly 60 percent of documented deaths are related to drowning, and more than one-third of those identified are from countries in conflict, including Afghanistan, Myanmar, Syria and Ethiopia.
IOM data shows that the deadliest year for migrants in the last decade was 2023, when 8,541 deaths were recorded, partly due to a sharp increase in deaths in the Mediterranean.
“The increase in deaths is likely linked to an increase in departures and, consequently, shipwrecks off the coast of Tunisia,” the report said, adding that at least 729 people died off the coast of Tunisia in 2023, compared to 462 in 2022.
“In all previous years, most deaths in the central Mediterranean have been documented off the coast of Libya,” it said.
With anti-immigration parties steadily gaining influence across Europe for years, governments have tried to stem migration flows to their countries by pledging funds to countries across the Mediterranean such as Tunisia and Egypt.
Earlier this month, the EU pledged a €7.4 billion package for Egypt that Italian Prime Minister Giorgio Meloni described as “the best way to deal with migratory flows”.
The governments of several European countries, including Italy, Hungary and Britain, have made curbing immigration a top priority, while elsewhere far-right parties such as France’s National Assembly, led by Marine Le Pen, have gained popularity.
Religious leaders are among those who have called for greater compassion for migrants. Pope Francis has called for a pan-European response to migration to prevent the Mediterranean from becoming a “sea of death”.
Photo: illustration
