Last year was deadliest year for migrants, UN agency says

FILE PHOTO: A migrant gestures on the Geo Barents migrant rescue ship, operated by Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders), as it makes its way to Italy after the rescue of 61 migrants on a wooden boat in international waters off the coast of Libya in the central Mediterranean Sea, September 30, 2023. REUTERS/Darrin Zammit Lupi/File Photo

GENEVA (Reuters) - At least 8,565 people died on migration routes across the world last year, making 2023 the deadliest year on record for migrants, the U.N. migration agency said on Wednesday.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said the number of migrant deaths recorded last year surpassed the number of dead and missing globally in the previous record year of 2016, when 8,084 people died.