2023 Was Deadliest Year for Migrants in A Decade: UN

2023 Was Deadliest Year for Migrants in A Decade: UN

Subject: IR

Section: Int organisation

Context:  As per the UN’s International Organization for Migration the 2023 death count represents a tragic increase of 20 percent compared to 2022, highlighting the urgent need for action to prevent further loss of life. At least 8,565 people died on migration routes worldwide in 2023, making it the deadliest year since records began a decade ago

Why increase?

The IOM said that because safe and regular migration pathways remain limited, hundreds of thousands of people attempt to migrate every year via irregular routes in unsafe conditions.

The most unsafe migration route

• The Mediterranean Sea, where many migrants try to reach southern Europe from northern Africa, continues to be the deadliest route for migrants, with at least 3,129 deaths and disappearances registered last year.
• It is the highest number of deaths on the Mediterranean migration routes since 2017.
• In one incident alone an overcrowded trawler, the Adriana, sank off the coast of Greece in on June 14 last year, with the loss of more than 600 lives.
• Unprecedented numbers of migrant deaths were recorded last year across Africa (1,866) and Asia (2,138).
• In Africa, most of the deaths occurred in the Sahara Desert and the sea route to Spain’s Canary Islands.
• In Asia, hundreds of deaths of Afghan and Rohingya refugees were recorded last year.
• Slightly more than half of the total migrant deaths in 2023 came as a result of drowning, with nine percent caused by vehicle accidents, and seven percent in violence

International Organization for Migration

• IOM is an intergovernmental organization that provides services and advice concerning migration to governments and migrants, including refugees, internally displaced persons and migrant workers.
• IOM was established in 1951 as Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration (ICEM) to help resettle people displaced by World War II.
• It was granted Permanent Observer status to UN General Assembly in 1992.
• Cooperation agreement between IOM and the UN was signed in 1996.
• World Migration Report is published every year by International Organization for Migration (IOM) of the UN.
• IOM works in four broad areas of migration management:
  • Migration and development,
  • Facilitating migration,
  • Regulating migration and
  • Forced migration.
• It has 166 member states, a further 8 states holding observer status and offices in over 100 countries.
• India is a member of IOM.

Missing Migrants Project

Missing Migrants Project records since 2014 people who die in the process of migration towards an international destination, regardless of their legal status. As collecting information is challenging, all figures remain undercounts. The locations in most cases are approximate. Each number represents a person, as well as the family and community that they leave behind.