7,900 people died, disappeared on migration routes in 2025: UN

GENEVA: Around 7,900 people died or disappeared on migration routes in 2025, taking the total dead and missing since 2014 beyond 80,000, the United Nations’ migration agency said Tuesday.

The UN’s International Organization for Migration said people were being forced into dangerous, irregular journeys when safe pathways were out of reach, and urged countries to find the political will to save more lives on migration routes.

“The deaths or disappearance of nearly 7,900 people were documented on global migration routes worldwide in 2025,” the IOM said.

The IOM’s Missing Migrants Project “has documented more than 80,000 deaths and disappearances during migration since 2014,” the agency said.

“While these figures represent only the lowest boundary of the true number of affected people, they nonetheless underscore the need for urgent action to end migrant deaths and address the complex needs of families left behind,” said the IOM.

The IOM said the 7,904 deaths and disappearances documented in 2025 “mark a continuation and escalation of a global failure to end these preventable deaths”.

“2025 was marked by an unprecedented level of aid cuts and restriction of information on dangerous irregular routes, rendering more and more missing migrants invisible,” it said.

Meanwhile, “an even more hidden population” of at least around 340,000 family members were estimated to be directly affected by the “ongoing crisis of missing migrants”.

They are having to deal with the psychological, social, legal and economic impacts of having a relative whose disappearance remains unresolved, the agency said.

The IOM said the May 2026 International Migration Review Forum was a chance to change the dynamics.

“Sustained political will is needed to save lives on migration routes worldwide and make visible the families most impacted by these preventable losses,” the agency.