Geneva, Switzerland. Nearly 8,000 migrants died or went missing on dangerous routes in 2025, and the true toll is likely far higher as funding cuts hamper monitoring of migration deaths, the UN’s International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said on Thursday.
Recorded deaths and monitoring concerns
The IOM recorded 7,667 deaths on migration routes in 2025, down from nearly 9,200 in 2024, but said the drop partly reflects shrinking access to information and funding shortfalls that have complicated efforts to track fatalities, not necessarily fewer deaths.
Enforcement and narrowing legal pathways
The agency said that as Europe, the United States and other regions increase enforcement and spend more on deterrence, legal migration pathways are narrowing, pushing more people into the hands of smugglers.
IOM director’s statement
“The continued loss of life on migration routes is a global failure that we cannot accept as normal,” IOM Director Amy Pope said in a statement. “These deaths are not inevitable. When safe pathways are inaccessible, people are pushed into dangerous journeys and into the hands of smugglers. We must now expand safe and regular pathways and ensure that those in need can access protection, regardless of their status.”
Deadliest routes and regional figures
Sea routes remained among the deadliest, 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.
In Asia, approximately 3,000 migrant deaths were recorded, more than half of them Afghan nationals. A further 922 people died crossing from the Horn of Africa to Gulf states, a sharp rise on the previous year, with nearly all of them Ethiopian, many lost in three major shipwrecks.
Impact of US aid cuts
The IOM said it is among several humanitarian organisations hit by significant cuts to US aid funding and has been forced to reduce or suspend programmes in ways it says will seriously affect migrants.
Early 2026 figures
The agency said the trend has continued into 2026, with 606 migrant deaths recorded in the Mediterranean to 24 February.
What measures do you think could improve the monitoring of migrant deaths on dangerous routes?
