Geneva, Switzerland. Nearly 8,000 people died or went missing on migration routes in 2025, but the true toll is likely higher as funding cuts have reduced humanitarian access and efforts to track deaths, the International Organization for Migration said.
Funding cuts and reduced visibility
The U.N. agency said 7,667 people died or went missing in 2025, down from nearly 9,200 in 2024, as fewer people attempted dangerous irregular journeys, particularly across the Americas. The IOM said the decline also reflects shrinking access to information and funding shortfalls that have hampered efforts to track fatalities.
The Geneva-based organisation said it has been affected by major U.S. funding cuts, forcing it to scale back or close programmes, which it said will severely impact migrants.
Enforcement measures and shrinking legal pathways
The IOM said legal pathways for migration are shrinking, pushing more people into the hands of smugglers, as Europe, the United States and other regions ramp up enforcement and invest heavily in deterrence.
“The continued loss of life on migration routes is a global failure we cannot accept as normal,” IOM Director General Amy Pope said in a statement published on Thursday.
“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 protected, regardless of their status.”
Deadliest routes and regional figures
Sea routes remained among the most lethal journeys, with at least 2,108 people dead or missing in the Mediterranean in 2025 and 1,047 on the Atlantic route to Spain’s Canary Islands, the IOM said.
The agency said some 3,000 migrant deaths were recorded in Asia, more than half of them Afghans. It also reported 922 deaths crossing the Horn of Africa from Yemen to the Gulf States, a sharp increase from the previous year, with almost all recorded as Ethiopians, many of whom died in three mass shipwrecks.
Early 2026 Mediterranean toll
The IOM said the trend has continued into 2026, with migrant deaths in the Mediterranean reaching 606 by February 24.
What steps should governments take to expand safe and regular migration routes while reducing deaths on dangerous journeys?
