Nearly 8,600 migrants perished on land and sea routes worldwide in 2023, says UN agency

In 2023, at least 8,565 migrants perished on land and sea routes around the world, the highest record since the United Nations migration agency began tracking deaths of migrants a decade ago.

The most significant rise occurred on the perilous Mediterranean Sea crossing, which rose to 3,129 from 2,411 in 2022, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) announced on Wednesday.

“As we mark the Missing Migrants Project’s ten years, we first remember all these lives lost. Every single one of them is a terrible human tragedy that reverberates through families and communities for years to come,” said IOM Deputy Director General Ugochi Daniels. “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 10 years from now, people aren’t having to risk their lives in search of a better one.”

However, this was significantly lower than the 5,136 deaths documented in the Mediterranean in 2016, when large numbers of Syrians, Afghans, and others left conflicts in their native countries for Europe.

The 2023 count was about twenty per cent higher than the previous year.

The IOM stressed that the majority of deaths last year, which were around 3,700, were due to drowning.

The list also includes migrants who disappeared, typically while attempting to cross by sea, and are assumed dead, even if their remains have not been discovered.

Africa recorded the highest death toll after Asia, with 1,866 killed, mostly in the Sahara Desert and along the sea route to the Canary Islands.

The Geneva-based migration agency warned that their total likely underestimates the exact death toll, adding that improved data-gathering procedures are a factor in its calculations.