LONDON
(Thomson Reuters Foundation) - A record 7,495 refugee and migrant deaths were
recorded worldwide last year - almost a third higher than in 2015 - with the
vast
majority perishing in the Mediterranean Sea, the International
Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Friday.
The
preliminary 2016 toll, which is likely to rise as more data comes in, pushed
the number of fatalities for the last three years to 18,501, or almost 20
deaths a day, IOM said.
"These
data ... are simply shocking. And we don't believe we are anywhere near
counting all of the victims," IOM Director General William Lacy Swing said
in a statement.
"We are
past the time for counting. We must act to make migration legal, safe and secure
for all."
The 2016
total of 7,495 deaths compares with 5,740 last year and 5,267 in 2014.
IOM, which
has collated data on migrant deaths for its Missing Migrants Project since
2013, said the increase was largely due to better research methods.
However,
some migrant routes also grew more deadly, particularly the Mediterranean
crossing between North Africa and Europe, where nearly 4,600 people perished in
2016.
IOM said
reports of deaths often came from migrants themselves who increasingly
chronicled their journeys on social media.
IOM
spokesman Joel Millman said the agency had developed good tools for tracking
migrants through social media in Latin America, but that some other parts of
the world were "almost invisible to us".
Routes used
by Iraqis, Pakistanis and Afghans crossing Iran and Turkey may be much deadlier
than data suggests, he told a media briefing in Geneva.
The Horn of
Africa, Bay of Bengal and corridor linking Ethiopia and South Africa are other
regions where the picture is far from complete.
"These
are very robust migrant corridors and extremely dangerous ... but we just don't
have the tools in place to track them," Millman said.
"It's
likely we won't ever get a true, final number for all these tragedies," he
added. "We hope for the day when these numbers begin dropping. But that
may not come for a while, yet."
Millman also
highlighted two unexpected regions for migrant deaths in 2016, including among
the growing number of Cubans crossing Colombia and Panama's Darien Gap.
A sudden movement
of thousands of Haitians leaving Brazil has also seen reports of migrant deaths
in Chile, Ecuador, Mexico and Central America - something that was rare in the
past, he said.
Many
Haitians headed to Brazil following their country's devastating 2010 earthquake,
but are now leaving for other destinations following a slump in the economy and
the end of the Olympics.
REUTERS
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