At least 8,565 people died on migration routes worldwide in 2023, making it the deadliest year on record (since 2014), according to data collected by the IOM’s Missing Migrants Project. The death toll in 2023 represents a tragic 20% increase compared to 2022.
The total from last year surpasses the number of dead and missing from 2016, which held the record, when 8,084 people died during migration journeys. As safe and regular migration pathways remain limited, hundreds of thousands of people attempt to migrate each year through irregular routes in unsafe conditions. Just over half of the deaths were due to drowning, with 9% caused by traffic accidents and 7% due to violence.
The crossing of the Mediterranean remains the deadliest route for immigrants ever recorded, with at least 3,129 deaths and disappearances. This is the highest death toll recorded in the Mediterranean since 2017. Regionally, unprecedented numbers of immigrant deaths were 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 were recorded last year.
In 2024, ten years since the establishment of the Missing Migrants Project as the only open-access database on immigrant deaths and disappearances, the project has documented over 63,000 cases worldwide. The actual number, however, is estimated to be much higher due to challenges in data collection, especially in remote locations such as Darién National Park in Panama and on maritime routes, where the IOM regularly records reports of invisible shipwrecks where boats disappear without a trace.
Source: IOM