BERLIN: At least 7,667 people died or went missing last year on migration routes around the world, but the true death toll is likely higher, the UN’s migration agency reported on Thursday.
The figure was down on 2024 when almost 9,200 deaths were recorded, but the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said numbers nonetheless reflected the “global scale” of the crisis faced by migrants.
“The continued loss of life on migration routes is a global failure we cannot accept as normal,” said IOM Director General Amy Pope. She argued for safer legal routes, adding: “These deaths are not inevitable.”
Funding cuts for aid groups, crackdowns on humanitarian NGOs and limited access to data are making it more difficult to accurately track deaths, the UN agency said.
Sea crossings such as the perilous journey across the Mediterranean Sea from Africa to Europe remain among the deadliest routes for migrants, the report said.
At least 2,108 people went missing while trying to cross the Mediterranean in 2025, and another 1,047 died or vanished while trying to cross to Spain’s Canary Islands, according to the IOM. The actual figures are “likely higher”, it said.
The first two months of 2026 have already seen “an unprecedented number of migrant deaths” in the Mediterranean, the agency warned, with
606 people recorded dead on the crossing as of Tuesday — even as arrivals in Italy decline sharply.
Published in Dawn, February 27th, 2026