The UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM) recently unveiled data cementing the US-Mexico border as the deadliest route for migrants worldwide. The data reveal the severe risks immigrants face on their arduous journey.
The Missing Migrants Project report by IOM suggests that in 2022 alone, 686 people died attempting to reach the United States. Still, the accurate representation of numbers remains uncertain, as the organization encountered difficulties in procuring certain data from Texas coroners’ offices and Mexico’s search and rescue agency.
This issue doesn’t just affect the U.S-Mexico border; over the course of 2022, nearly 1,500 migrant deaths were reported across North, Central, and South America, and the Caribbean. A survey by the IOM suggests that heavier casualties are a result of migrants opting for less frequented, hence more dangerous routes to their destinations. IOM’s findings suggest that one in 25 respondents reported a member of their travelling group went missing during the journey.
While flagging the urgent need for improved data, the IOM also raised a call to action advocating secure, regularly charted migration routes to potentially decrease deaths during migration.
The issue of border deaths often triggers humanitarian outcries, such as in August 2023, when two bodies were found at the Texas border from the Rio Grande, causing renewed arguments to dismantle the Texas state’s buoys, set to deter border crossings.
Outside the Americas, global migration routes continue to claim lives. Reportedly, more than 3,500 migrants have lost their lives in 2022 while making the perilous journey from the Middle East and North Africa to Europe.
This report by the IOM underscores the need for improved, compassionate immigration policies worldwide — a critical conversation currently taking place in numerous capacities.
The original report has been published on the Jurist – News.