More than 3,000 people lost in sea crossings to Europe in 2021 -UN

FILE PHOTO: Rescue workers carry the body of a dead person after a boat with 35 migrants from the Maghreb region capsized in the beach of Orzola, in the Canary Island of Lanzarote, Spain, November 25, 2020. REUTERS/Borja Suarez/File Photo

GENEVA (Reuters) - More than 3,000 refugees, migrants and asylum seekers died or went missing last year while trying to reach Europe via Mediterranean and Atlantic sea routes, a U.N. refugee agency report showed on Friday.

UNHCR's Shabia Mantoo told a news briefing in Geneva the 2021 figure represented nearly twice the number of lives lost in the previous year.