A new report reveals nearly 1,600 children – an average of almost one every day – were reported dead or missing between 2014 and 2018, though many more go unrecorded.
The report, from the International Organization for Migration’s (IOM) Global Migration Data Analysis Centre (GMDAC) highlights the need for better data on migrant deaths and disappearances, particularly those of missing migrant children.
This year’s Fatal Journeys 4 report focuses on the theme of missing migrant children, given the growing number embarking on dangerous migrant journeys.
“Tragically, we have been reminded in recent days that children are among the most vulnerable groups of migrants,” said Frank Laczko, Director of IOM’s GMDAC.
“The lack of data on the ages, characteristics and vulnerabilities of missing migrant children creates serious protection gaps; it makes it very difficult to create programs and policies designed to protect them.”
Other key findings include:
- Since 2014, IOM’s Missing Migrants Project has recorded globally the deaths of more than 32,000 people.
- Between 2014 and 2018, more than 17,900 people died or went missing in the Mediterranean—the remains of almost two thirds of those victims have not been recovered.
- Despite the conflict in Yemen, people continue to attempt the sea crossing from the Horn of Africa across the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden: at least 125 people drowned off the shores of Yemen in 2018, compared with 53 in 2017.
- Of almost 2,200 deaths recorded during migration in South-East Asia between 2014 and 2018, at least 1,723 were Rohingya.
- Most of the 288 deaths recorded in South Asia since 2014 were of Afghan migrants.
- In the Middle East, 421 deaths were recorded between 2014 and 2018; the largest number (145) in 2018.
- An increasing number of deaths on the United States–Mexico border have been recorded each year since 2014, totalling 1,907 over five years.
Read the full report here
