At least 8,565 people died on migration routes worldwide in 2023, making it the deadliest year on record, according to data collected by IOM’s Missing Migrants Project. The 2023 death toll represents a tragic increase of 20% compared to 2022.
Last year’s total surpasses the number of dead and missing globally in the previous record year of 2016, when 8,084 people died during migration, making it the deadliest year since the Missing Migrants Project’s inception in 2014. As safe and regular migration pathways remain limited, hundreds of thousands of people attempt to migrate every year via irregular routes in unsafe conditions. Slightly more than half of the deaths were a result of drowning, with 9% caused by vehicle accidents, and 7% by violence.
The Mediterranean crossing continues to be the deadliest route for migrants on record, with at least 3,129 deaths and disappearances. This is the highest death toll recorded in the Mediterranean since 2017. Regionally, unprecedented numbers of migrant deaths were recorded across Africa (1,866) and Asia (2,138). In Africa, most of these deaths occurred in the Sahara Desert and the sea route to the Canary Islands. In Asia, hundreds of deaths of Afghan and Rohingya refugees fleeing their countries of origin were recorded last year.
In 2024, ten years since the establishment of the Missing Migrants Project as the only open-access database on migrant deaths and disappearances, the project has documented more than 63,000 cases worldwide. The true figure, however, is estimated to be much higher due to challenges in data collection particularly in remote locations such as the Darien National Park in Panama and on maritime routes, where IOM regularly records reports of invisible shipwrecks where boats disappear without a trace.
Source: IOM