IOM Releases New Data on Migrant Fatalities: Almost 40,000 Since 2000
The Missing Migrants Project | Migrants Deaths on World Borders, Jan-Sept 2014
29 Sep 2014 - IOM today released “Fatal Journeys: Tracking lives lost during migration”, the world’s most comprehensive tally of migrant fatalities across land and sea. With a count surpassing 40,000 victims since 2000, IOM calls on all the world’s governments to address what it describes as “an epidemic of crime and victimization.” “Our message is blunt: migrants are dying who need not,” said IOM Director General William Lacy Swing, “It is time to do more than count the number of victims. It is time to engage the world to stop this violence against desperate migrants.” The report, compiled under IOM’s Missing Migrants Project, indicates Europe is the world’s most dangerous destination for “irregular” migration, costing the lives of over 3,000 migrants this year.