At least 8,565 people died on migration routes worldwide in 2023, making it the deadliest year on record, according to data collected by the IOM’s Missing Migrants Project. The total deaths in 2023 represent a tragic 20% increase compared to 2022.
The total from last year 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 inception of the Missing Migrants Project in 2014. As safe and regular migration pathways remain limited, hundreds of thousands of people attempt to migrate each year through irregular routes under unsafe conditions. Slightly more than half of the deaths resulted from drowning, with 9% caused by vehicle accidents and 7% by violence.
The Mediterranean crossing remains the deadliest route for migrants ever recorded, with at least 3,129 deaths and disappearances. This is the highest number of deaths recorded in the Mediterranean since 2017. Regionally, unprecedented numbers of migrant deaths have been recorded in Africa (1,866) and Asia (2,138). In Africa, most of these deaths occurred in the Sahara Desert and on the maritime route to the Canary Islands. In Asia, hundreds of deaths of Afghan and Rohingya refugees fleeing their home countries 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 over 63,000 cases worldwide. The actual figure, however, is estimated to be much higher due to challenges in data collection, particularly in remote locations such as Darién National Park in Panama and on maritime routes, where the IOM regularly records reports of invisible shipwrecks in which boats disappear without a trace.
Source: IOM