Nearly 8,000 people died or disappeared without a trace in attempts to migrate illegally in 2025, according to a report by the UN's International Organization for Migration (IOM), published in Geneva. The Missing Migrants project recorded exactly 7,904 documented cases - some 1,300 fewer than the record year of 2024, when 9,197 victims were recorded. This brings the total number of dead and missing since 2014, when IOM began systematic monitoring, to over 82,000. Approximately 340,000 family members were left in uncertainty as to whether their loved ones would ever return.

However, IOM does not consider the decline compared to 2024 to be a cause for optimism. The organisation warns that the figures are likely to be underestimated - up to 1,500 suspected cases remain unverified precisely because of massive cuts in humanitarian aid that have severely reduced the capacity of field teams.

„The year 2025 was marked by an unprecedented scale of foreign aid cuts and restrictions on access to information on dangerous illegal routes. As a result, more and more missing migrants remain invisible,“ konstatuje zpráva.

The deadliest route remains the central Mediterranean - the route from Libya and Tunisia across the sea to Italy. In 2025, 2,108 people died or disappeared here, many of them victims of the so-called "migrant deaths". „invisible survivors“, ...all overcrowded with boats that sank without a single surviving witness. The second most dangerous is the Atlantic route from West Africa to the Spanish Canary Islands, where the IOM has recorded between 1,047 and 1,200 victims. In total, over 3,400 people have lost their lives on the sea routes to Europe, accounting for more than four out of every ten recorded fatalities worldwide.

An alarming trend has been noted by IOM in Asia - specifically on the route through the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea. Approximately 860 to 900 people have died or gone missing here, an increase of more than 40 per cent year-on-year and the worst record ever for this route. It is used almost exclusively by Rohingya refugees fleeing Myanmar or from overcrowded camps in Bangladesh. In total, the African route has claimed 4,767 victims.

IOM Director General Amy Pope the message is accompanied by an unambiguous message: „Routes change in response to conflict, climate pressures and political decisions, but the risks are still very real. Behind these numbers are people embarking on dangerous journeys and families waiting for news that may never come.“ Její kolegyně Maria Moita, head of IOM's Humanitarian Department, added at a Geneva press conference: „These numbers are a testament to our collective failure to prevent these tragedies.“

The IOM also warns that 2026 has begun in the central Mediterranean with „an unprecedentedly high number of casualties“ and calls on governments to renew commitments to save lives and open safe legal routes ahead of the International Forum on Migration in May 2026.

gnews.cz - GH