Nearly 9,000 migrants died last year in record death toll, UN agency says

The agency recently announced it was suspending many programmes around the world and firing hundreds of employees due to US-led aid cuts.

Nearly 9,000 people died last year attempting to cross borders, according to new statistics released by the UN agency for migration.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) recorded at least 8,938 migrant deaths in 2024, setting a record for the fifth year in a row.

However, the agency says the real death toll is likely much higher given that many deaths go unreported or undocumented.

“The rise of deaths is terrible in and of itself, but the fact that thousands remained unidentified each year is even more tragic,” Julia Black, coordinator of IOM’s Missing Migrants Projects said in the statement.

“Beyond the despair and unresolved questions faced by families who have lost a loved one, the lack of more complete data on risks faced by migrants hinders lifesaving responses.”  

Asia was the region with the most reported fatalities with 2,788 migrant deaths, followed by the Mediterranean Sea where 2,452 people died.

Trying to reach Europe

Thousands of people die each year attempting to cross the Mediterranean hoping to make it to Europe.

The number who died or went missing in the sea between 2014 and 2024 was at least 24,506, according to the UN Missing Migrant Project.

Last year, more than 2,200 migrants either died or went missing in the Mediterranean, according to the UN.

So far this year, 8,963 migrants have reached Italy, the country’s interior ministry said earlier this month.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has attempted to reduce boat departures through several agreements with north African countries.

Meloni claimed this week that the deals were responsible for an almost 60% drop in the number of migrants arriving in Italy. Last year, 66,317 reached the country, down from 157,651 in 2023.

The strip of Atlantic Ocean between West Africa and Spain’s Canary Islands is also one of the world’s deadliest migration routes.

Nearly 47,000 people who made the crossing last year reached the archipelago, shattering previous records for a second time.

Most were citizens of Mali, Senegal and Morocco, with many boarding boats to Spain from the coast of Mauritania.

However, Spain’s interior ministry recorded that numbers were down.

Almost 11,000 migrants have reached Spain this year by sea as of 15 March, a 21% decrease from the same period last year.

The IOM also said there were also an “unprecedented 341 lives lost in the Caribbean,” 233 in Europe and 174 in the Darién Gap, the crossing between Colombia and Panama, a new record.

News of the record death toll comes only days after the agency announced it was suspending many “lifesaving” programmes around the world and firing hundreds of employees due to US-led aid cuts which are expected to have an impact on millions of vulnerable migrants worldwide.