Fatal Journeys: Tracking Lives Lost during Migration
Executive Summary In October 2013, 366 migrants died when their boat caught fire and sank off the coast of Lampedusa. Less than a year later, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) reported that 500 migrants were feared dead after their ship was rammed by another boat near Malta. News of this sinking emerged as an additional ship carrying 200 people sank off the coast of Libya. Sadly, these are not isolated incidents. In 2014, up to 3,072 migrants are believed to have died in the Mediterranean, compared with an estimate of 700 in 2013. Globally, IOM estimates that at least 4,077 migrants died in 2014, and at least 40,000 since the year 2000. The true number of fatalities is likely to be higher, as many deaths occur in remote regions of the world and are never recorded. Some experts have suggested that for every dead body discovered, there are at least two others that are never recovered. This report examines how data on migrant deaths is collected and shared in different parts of the world. The study shows that no organization at the global level is currently responsible for systematically monitoring the number of deaths that occur. Data tends to be scattered, with a range of organizations involved in tracking fatalities and often employing different definitions of borderrelated death. Most available information comes from media reports and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), but this data can be incomplete. For example, the media tend to cover larger-scale incidents, while cases involving smaller numbers of migrant deaths might not be considered newsworthy. There are few detailed statistics, because collecting data on migrant deaths has not been a priority for most governments around the world. Although vast sums of money are spent collecting migration and border control data, very few governments collect and publish data on migrant deaths. The study carefully reviews existing sources of data and shows that there are huge gaps in our knowledge. Relatively little is known about the migrants who perish. In the case of tragedies at sea, the majority of bodies are often never found. As many migrants are undocumented, often relatively little is known about their identities, even for those whose bodies are recovered. In 2014, nearly 70 per cent of deaths recorded by IOM refer to migrants who are missing, usually at sea. In the majority of fatalities occurring in 2014, it was not possible to establish whether the deceased were male or female. Information on region of origin suggests that the majority of migrants who lost their lives in 2014 were from Africa and the Middle East. The report also shows that for some regions of the world, such as sub-Saharan Africa, reliable information is often extremely scarce, as NGOs, media and governments are not tracking migrant deaths. Additionally, the study finds important differences in death trends across regions. Although methods of counting vary, over the last 20 years Europe appears to
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