Almost 8,000 died on migration routes in 2025 but toll likely far higher, says UN agency

An unexploded tear gas grenade lays on the beach next to an inflatable boat punctured by French police and used by migrants to cross the Channel, Monday, Dec. 22, 2025 in Gravelines, northern France. (AP Photo/Jean-Francois Badias)

BRUSSELS -- Almost 8,000 people died or went missing last year on perilous migration routes such as across the Mediterranean and Horn of Africa, but the real toll is likely far higher as cuts in funding have hit humanitarian access and tracking of deaths, a UN agency said.

Legal pathways for migration are shrinking, pushing more people into the hands of smugglers, the International Organization for Migration said, as Europe, the U.S. 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.”

Although deaths along migration routes fell to 7,667 in 2025 from nearly 9,200 in 2024 as fewer people attempted dangerous irregular journeys — particularly across the Americas — the decline reflects shrinking access to information and funding shortfalls that have hampered efforts to track fatalities, the IOM said.

The Geneva‑based organization is among several aid groups hit by major U.S. funding cuts, forcing it to scale back or close programs in ways it says will severely impact migrants.

Sea routes remained among the most lethal journeys, with at least 2,108 people dead or missing in the Mediterranean last year and 1,047 on the Atlantic route to Spain’s Canary Islands, the agency said.

Some 3,000 migrant deaths were recorded in Asia, more than half of them Afghans, and 922 died crossing the Horn of Africa from Yemen to the Gulf States, in a sharp increase on the previous year. Almost all of them were Ethiopians, many of whom died in three mass shipwrecks.

The trend has continued into 2026, with migrant deaths in the Mediterranean reaching 606 by February 24, the IOM added.

Reporting by Amina Ismail; Editing by Alexandra Hudson, Reuters