More than 8,500 migrants perished globally setting record since UN track in 2014

Last year, 8,565 migrants died while trying to travel by land and sea, which is the highest number of deaths recorded in the past ten years, according to the UN migration agency.

The International Organization for Migration said that the number of people who died while trying to cross the dangerous Mediterranean Sea in 2021 increased to 3,129 from 2,411 in 2020. However, it was much less than the highest number of 5,136 deaths in 2016. Many Syrians, Afghans, and others were trying to escape from conflicts and move to Europe.

IOM reported that the number of migrants who died in 2023 was almost 20% higher than the year before.

It was reported that the majority of deaths last year, around 3,700, were caused by drowning.

The total number also counts migrants who disappeared, sometimes while trying to cross the sea, and are believed to be dead even if their bodies were not found.

The migration agency in Geneva said that the numbers are probably smaller than the actual number of people affected, and better ways of collecting data also affect their calculations.

“Each one of these is a really sad event that affects families and communities for a long time,” said IOM Deputy Director General Ugochi Daniels in a statement.

In recent years, the number of people who died while trying to move to another country increased the most in Asia. Last year, 2,138 migrants died in Asia, which was 68 more than in 2022. Many Afghan people died while trying to escape to Iran, and many Rohingya refugees died while traveling by sea. This is what IOM spokesperson Jorge Galindo said in an email.

IOM reported that a lot of people died in Africa last year — 1,866 — mostly in the Sahara Desert and along the sea route to the Canary Islands.

The agency said it was hard to gather information in faraway places like the dangerous Darien Gap between Colombia and Panama, where lots of people travel from South America to North America.

In 2014, the IOM started keeping track of how many migrants were missing or dead. This was because a lot of migrants were dying in the Mediterranean and many were coming to the Italian island of Lampedusa from Tunisia.