At least 7,667 people went missing or died on migration routes worldwide in 2025, the UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM) reported, and the agency called for more funding for rescue groups and stronger action to dismantle smuggling networks.
The 2025 figure was lower than 2024’s toll of 9,200 — the highest annual total since the IOM began systematic data collection in 2014 — but the agency warned the number is likely an undercount because sharp funding cuts for aid organizations mean many cases go undocumented. Early 2026 data are already worrying: 606 deaths have been recorded in the Mediterranean so far this year, up from 285 at the same point in 2025, with hundreds more reported missing.
Regionally, the IOM recorded nearly 2,200 confirmed dead or missing in the Mediterranean in 2025, and about 1,200 dead or disappeared on the West Africa–to–Canary Islands route — both lower than the previous year. Disturbingly, three vessels carrying the remains of 42 migrants were found off Brazil and Caribbean islands, apparently having drifted across the Atlantic after departing Africa for the Canary Islands.
In the Americas, fewer people appear to have attempted the most dangerous routes in 2025: the IOM recorded 409 deaths, the lowest number since 2014. For the third consecutive year, the largest number of deaths occurred in Asia and along routes from the Horn of Africa to Yemen and the Gulf states, where nearly 4,000 people died; the IOM links this partly to rising numbers of Afghans fleeing their country.
To prevent further loss of life, the IOM urged an urgent scale-up of coordinated search-and-rescue operations and stronger international cooperation to dismantle criminal networks. “The continued loss of life on migration routes is a global failure we cannot accept as normal,” said IOM Director General Amy Pope. “These deaths are not inevitable. When safe pathways are out of reach, people are forced into dangerous journeys and into the hands of smugglers and traffickers. We must act now to expand safe and regular routes, and ensure people in need can be reached and protected, regardless of their status.”
Edited by: Jenipher Camino Gonzalez