At least 5,684 people have died on migration routes to and within Europe since the beginning of 2021, according to a new report from the Missing Migrants Project.

The report says there have been increasing numbers of deaths seen on routes across the Mediterranean, on land borders to Europe and within the continent.

And the latest figures bring to 29,000, the number of deaths during migration journeys to Europe since 2014

 “These continuing deaths are another grim reminder that more legal and safe pathways to migration are desperately needed,” said lead author Julia Black.

At least 2,836 deaths and disappearances were documented on the Central Mediterranean route since 2021, an increase compared to the 2,262 deaths recorded between 2019 and 2020.  

On the West Africa-Atlantic route to the Spanish Canary Islands, 1,532 deaths were documented in the reporting period, a figure already higher than any two-year period since the project began in 2014.   

The report says that on both of these long and hazardous routes, data for the current year is highly likely to be incomplete given the labour-intensive process of verifying all-too-frequent ‘invisible shipwrecks’ – cases in which entire boats are lost at sea without any search and rescue being conducted. 

Since 2021, increases in the death toll on many other European routes have been documented compared to prior years.

One the Turkey-Greece land border, 126 deaths have been documented, the Western Balkans route has seen 69, the English Channel crossing 53, the Belarus-European Union borders 23 and deaths of Ukrainians fleeing the recent conflict number 17. 

The Missing Migrants Project says its records show that many of the deaths on migratory routes to destination countries in Europe could have been prevented by prompt and effective assistance to migrants in distress.   

The report says accounts from survivors relayed show that at least 252 people died during alleged forced expulsions by European authorities, also known as pushbacks, since 2021.  

“The pushback-related deaths were documented in the Central Mediterranean 97 deaths since 2021, in the Eastern Mediterranean 70 deaths, on the Turkey-Greece land border 58 deaths, in the Western Mediterranean 23 deaths and on the Belarus-Poland border 4 deaths,” the report says.

“Such cases are nearly impossible to verify in full due to the lack of transparency, lack of access, and the highly politicised nature of such events, and as such these figures are likely an underestimate of the true number of deaths,” it says.

The report found that there were people from 52 countries who have died on migration routes to and within Europe.

“The scale of this issue – and the impact on families and communities dealing with unresolved losses – means there is no solution to this issue without buy-in from the authorities,” Ms Black said.

But the project points out that identification rates of those who die on migratory routes to and within Europe are lower than in other regions of the world.

“For example, in the Central Mediterranean the nationalities of just 4 of 59 people (7 per cent) who died off the coast of Europe in 2021 was established, meaning that the identities of the remaining 55 people likely remain unknown,” the report said.

“This is significantly lower than those who died off the coast of North Africa on the Central Mediterranean crossing, where 457 of 1,508 individuals (30 per cent) are recorded with a known country of origin,” it said.  

“In total, more than 17,000 people who lost their lives on routes to and within Europe between 2014 and 2021 are listed without any information on country of origin, a key identifying detail, which sheds light on the unresolved loss of countless families searching for missing relatives lost on migration journeys to Europe,” the report said.

The Missing Persons Project is an initiative of the International Organisation for Migration. Read the full report here: International Organization for Migration (iom.int)