Geneva, Switzerland
Reuters
At least 8,565 people died on migration routes across the world last year, making 2023 the deadliest year on record for migrants, according to the UN migration agency.
A migrant gestures on the Geo Barents migrant rescue ship, operated by Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders), as it makes its way to Italy after the rescue of 61 migrants on a wooden boat in international waters off the coast of Libya in the central Mediterranean Sea, on 30th September, 2023. PICTURE: Reuters/Darrin Zammit Lupi/File photo
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Wednesday that the number of migrant deaths recorded last year surpassed the number of dead and missing globally in the previous record year of 2016, when 8,084 people died.
Last year’s death toll was also 20 per cent up on 2022.
“These horrifying figures collected by the Missing Migrants Project are also a reminder that we must recommit to greater action that can ensure safe migration for all, so that ten years from now, people aren’t having to risk their lives in search of a better one,” IOM Deputy Director General Ugochi Daniels said.
Missing Migrants Project, an IOM initiative that has recorded migrant deaths and disappearances since 2014, has found that the Mediterranean crossing continues to be the deadliest route for migrants, with at least 3,129 deaths and disappearances recorded last year.
