Migrants gather at an immigration station in Tapachula, Mexico in February. 2024 saw a record number of migration deaths, surpassing the previous record set in 2023. File Photo by Juan Manuel Blanco/EPA-EFE
March 21 (UPI) — Nearly 9,000 people died on migration routes in 2024, the deadliest year on record, the United Nations’ migration agency said Friday.
The International Organization for Migration announced in a press release Friday that “at least 8,938 people” died on migration routes in 2024, which is more than the 8,747 who died in 2023, which had stood as the deadliest year for migrants until last year.
It is the fifth year in a row that a year surpassed the year prior for such deaths, and IOM added that the actual number of migration deaths is probably even higher, as not all deaths are documented, and not all those who have died can be identified.
The data from 2024 further revealed that there were 2,778 migration deaths in Asia, 2,242 in Africa and 233 in Europe. 2,452 also died in the Mediterranean Sea.
IOM reported it hasn’t fully compiled migration deaths for the Americas, but did confirm there were at least 1,233, which includes 341 in the Caribbean and 174 in the Darien Gap region between Colombia and Panama.
“The rise in deaths is terrible in and of itself, but the fact that thousands remain unidentified each year is even more tragic,” said IOM’s Missing Migrants Project coordinator Julia Black, and that “the lack of more complete data on risks faced by migrants hinders lifesaving responses.”