Overview
- The UN migration agency’s annual Missing Migrants report, released Tuesday, counts 7,904 people dead or unaccounted for on global routes in 2025.
- Sea crossings toward Europe were the deadliest corridors, with many “invisible shipwrecks” in which entire boats vanished without recovery.
- The West African route north recorded about 1,200 deaths, and parts of Asia saw record losses that included hundreds of Rohingya refugees.
- The IOM says roughly 1,500 suspected cases in 2025 could not be verified after aid and monitoring were cut, so the official total is a minimum.
- The agency is urging stronger sea rescue, better data systems and safer legal pathways before May’s migration forum, noting more than 80,000 deaths since 2014 and strain on roughly 340,000 relatives.