deo: The Bir al-Osta Milad cemetery is where many of Libya’s dead migrants are buried. It has an estimated ten thousand graves, many of them unmarked. Credit:  The Outlaw Ocean Project  / Photographer Pierre Kattar

 IOM’s Missing Migrants Project has documented more than 72,000 deaths and disappearances on migration routes worldwide since 2014.  ¹   Crisis-affected countries  ²   are the site of 54 per cent of all deaths and disappearances documented during migration since 2014. People from countries in crisis separately make up 27 per cent of the global total. This evidence underscores the need for action to save the lives of the migrants in some of the world’s most precarious situations.

This report highlights the growing number of missing migrants recorded each year since 2020 with a particular focus on countries affected by the mobility dimensions of crisis. 2024 marked the largest annual death toll recorded since IOM began collecting data in 2014, with more than 8,700 deaths recorded for the second year in a row. In 2024, Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Caribbean all saw the highest number of deaths during migration for any year on record.  More than half of all deaths recorded by IOM since 2014 occurred within or at the borders of crisis-affected countries, with more than 39,000 dead or missing on transit routes in countries with a humanitarian response plan in place.

Since 2014, more than half of the 72,000 people who died or went missing during migration occurred in countries experiencing violent upheavals or disasters, including Libya, Iran, and Myanmar. One in four were from countries affected by humanitarian crises, with the deaths of thousands of Afghans, Rohingya, and Syrians documented on migration routes worldwide. The rising death toll during migration, and the contributing impacts of crisis-affected countries, highlights the need for including migrants in humanitarian responses and lifesaving activities.  

Key findings from the report include: 

https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/1098aa8ecb07417ab4276607092149cc

• 2024 is the highest death toll on record. It is the second consecutive year that the annual death toll topped 8,700 recorded deaths.   
• 2024 was also the deadliest year for migrants in Africa, Asia, Europe, and Central America.  
• The death toll in 2024 includes at least 773 females, 3,084 males, and 480 children who died on migration routes worldwide. Compared to 2023, these figures represent a decrease in information on the age and sex of missing migrants in 2024, indicating that fewer people may be identified. 

• More than half of all recorded deaths occurred in countries affected by crisis  
• 1 in 4 missing migrants come from countries in crisis.   
• The three main nationalities of migrants who have died or gone missing are Afghanistan, Myanmar (Rohingya), and Syria. 
• Deaths due to violence were heavily overrepresented in countries in crisis, comprising 10 per cent of deaths as compared to less than 4 per cent in non-crisis countries.  
• Sickness and lack of access to healthcare caused far more deaths in countries in crisis, amounting to 6 per cent of transit deaths in those countries compared to 1.5 per cent in non-crisis countries.  

The rise in deaths in the last two years, and the linkages to countries in crisis, point to the strong need for action to ensure safe and regular pathways are accessible. The growth of irregular migration has led to countless people too often taking deadly risks in search of a better life. The fact that this increase in deaths is so global necessitates an international, holistic response. Migrants rights violations and lack of regular pathways have been found to increase risk taking behavior and migrant smuggling, hence resulting in higher irregular migration incidents. Migration is and has always been a feature of humanity. A new system that provides safe, legal routes for people on the move is the only sustainable solution to the growing crisis of migrant deaths.