Migrants Day: Over 3,000 Die during Migration Journeys in 2020

So far in 2020, the Missing Migrants Project of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) has recorded over 3,000 deaths on migratory routes worldwide.

On the occasion of the International Day of Migration, the IOM reported data for 2020 up to and including 17 December on Friday.

Tens of thousands of people continued to leave their homes and embark on risky journeys through deserts and oceans, despite COVID-19 and the stringent travel restrictions and measures imposed on borders across the world in an effort to contain the spread of the virus.

Though the overall number of people known to have lost their lives in 2020 is fewer than previous years, some routes saw an increase in fatalities. Most notably, at least 593 people died en route to Spain’s Canary Islands thus far in 2020, compared to 210 recorded in 2019 and 45 in 2018.

Compared to previous years, an increase in migrant deaths was also reported in South America in 2020, with at least 104 people losing their lives, most of them Venezuelan migrants, compared to fewer than 40 in previous years.

At least 1,773 people died within and en route to Europe this year, making up the majority of fatalities recorded worldwide; a trend that has continued since 2014, when IOM’s Missing Migrants Project began collecting this data.