At least 8,565 migrants died on land and sea routes worldwide last year, the highest number since the U.N. migration agency began counting deaths a decade ago.


FILE - A dinghy lies on the shore after a shipwreck where two migrants were killed and eight were rescued, in Thermi, on the northeastern Aegean Sea island of Lesbos, Greece, on Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2023. The U.N. migration agency reported Wednesday that 8,565 people died on land and sea routes worldwide last year, a record high since launching its tally of the death toll a decade ago. The International Organization for Migration says the biggest increase in deaths last year came in the treacherous Mediterranean sea crossing. (AP Photo/Panagiotis Balaskas, File)

The biggest increase was on the treacherous Mediterranean Sea crossing, to 3,129 from 2,411 in 2022, the International Organization for Migration said Wednesday. However, that was well below the 5,136 deaths recorded on the Mediterranean in 2016 as huge numbers of Syrians, Afghans and others fled conflicts in their homelands toward Europe.

The 2023 count was nearly 20% more than the previous year. Most of the deaths last year, about 3,700, were people who drowned. The count also includes migrants who vanished — often while trying to cross by sea — and are presumed dead even if their bodies were not found.

The Geneva-based migration agency cautioned that their count likely underestimates the true death toll and said improved data collection methods are a factor in its calculations.

Every single one of them is a terrible human tragedy that reverberates through families and communities for years to come,” IOM Deputy Director General Ugochi Daniels said in a statement.

AP