More than 50,000 people have lost their lives while attempting to migrate to other countries since 2014, according to a report by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), which only takes into account «documented» deaths.
More than half of the deaths have Europe as their setting or target, to the extent that at least 25,104 migrants have died in Mediterranean waters alone. These European routes also top the list in terms of missing persons, with the remains of 16,032 migrants reportedly lost in the Mediterranean.
Africa is the second region with the most deaths – over 9,000, although experts assume this is only a small proportion of the total – while the Americas are in third place. Nearly 7,000 deaths have been recorded in the Americas, almost 4,700 of them on routes leading to the United States.
One of the major gaps in data collection is the clarification of the origin of the migrant, since in more than 30,000 cases there is no known nationality. Of the nationalities that are known, more than 9,000 correspond to African countries, more than 6,500 to Asians and some 3,000 to Americans, according to this study, which establishes Afghanistan, Syria and Burma as the main senders.
One of the authors of the report, Julia Black, lamented that, despite the evidence of the data, «very little has been done to address the consequences of these tragedies, let alone prevent them.» «Regardless of the reasons that drive these people to move, no one deserves to die in search of a better life,» she warned.
