At least 7,667 people went missing or died on migration routes worldwide in 2025, the UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM) reported. The agency urged increased funding for rescue groups and action to dismantle smuggling networks that endanger lives.
The 2025 total was lower than 2024, when 9,200 deaths were recorded — the highest annual toll since IOM began systematic data collection in 2014. The IOM warned the 2025 figure is likely an undercount because many cases go undocumented after sharp funding cuts for aid organizations. Early 2026 data show a worrying rise: 606 deaths have already been recorded in the Mediterranean this year, higher than at the same point in 2025, when there were 285, with hundreds more reported missing.
Regionally, nearly 2,200 people were confirmed dead or missing in the Mediterranean in 2025, and about 1,200 died or disappeared on the West Africa–to–Canary Islands route; both figures were lower than the previous year. Disturbingly, three boats 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, with the IOM recording 409 deaths — the lowest number since 2014. For the third straight year, the largest number of deaths occurred in Asia and along routes between the Horn of Africa and Yemen and the Gulf states, where nearly 4,000 people died. The agency links this partly to increased numbers of Afghans fleeing their country.
To prevent further loss of life, the IOM called for 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