UN agency reports over 8,500 migrants died worldwide last year, a record since tallies began in 2014

GENEVA – A complete of 8,565 migrants died on land and sea routes worldwide last 12 months, the U.N. migration agency mentioned Wednesday, a record top since it began tallying deaths a decade in the past.

The International Organization for Migration mentioned the most important build up in deaths last 12 months used to be at the treacherous Mediterranean Sea crossing, to a few,129 from 2,411 in 2022. However, that used to be neatly under the record 5,136 deaths recorded at the Mediterranean in 2016 as large numbers of Syrians, Afghans and others fled conflicts towards Europe.

IOM mentioned the entire collection of deaths amongst migrants in 2023 used to be just about 20% greater than in 2022.

It mentioned lots of the deaths last 12 months, about 3,700, got here from drowning.

The Geneva-based migration agency cautioned that the figures most probably underestimate the actual toll, and components reminiscent of advanced knowledge assortment strategies play a phase in its calculations.

“Every single one of them is a terrible human tragedy that reverberates through families and communities for years to come,” IOM Deputy Director General Ugochi Daniels said in a statement.

Overall, the biggest jump in deaths in recent years was in Asia, where more than 2,000 migrants died compared to an annual average of under 1,000 since 2014. IOM said 2,138 migrants died in Asia last year, 68 more than in 2022.

The rise in Asia last year was primarily because of increased deaths among Afghans fleeing to places like neighboring Iran and among Rohingya refugees on maritime routes, IOM spokesperson Jorge Galindo said in an email.

IOM said a record number of deaths also 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” in Panama, where many migrants pass from South America on their way north.

IOM’s “Missing Migrants” mission, which tallies the figures, used to be arrange in 2014 after a surge in deaths in the Mediterranean and an inflow of migrants at the Italian island of Lampedusa off Tunisia.