Almost 10,000 migrants died on American routes in 10 years: IOM

Jessica Xantomila and Jared Laureles

La Jornada Newspaper
Saturday, December 7, 2024, p. 4

In almost a decade, 9,933 undocumented immigrants have died or disappeared along the migratory routes in the American region, according to the Missing Migrants Project of the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

It points out that of the total cases, 44.68 percent were recorded on the border between Mexico and the United States, followed by those from the Caribbean to reach US territory, with 709, and the Darién jungle, between Colombia and Panama, 537.

In its latest report –with data from 2023–, which includes information until November 2024, it warns that these numbers are a consequence of the lack of accessible options for safe and regular mobility in the region, and are minimum estimates, since the real number , depending on the danger of the route, is much older.

According to information collected from various sources, so far in 2024 there have been 924 undocumented deaths and disappearances, of which 248 were reported on the border routes between Mexico and the United States, followed by Darién, 173; the Caribbean, 170, and between the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, 95.

The causes of deaths on the border between Mexico and the United States are due to drowning in rivers, extreme environmental conditions and lack of accommodation and access to water, as well as vehicle accidents or deaths related to dangerous transportation.

In addition, due to illness or lack of adequate health care, accidental death and violence, among others.

In the virtual session Network of the Americas on missing migrants, Edwin Viales Mora, regional monitor for the Americas of the Missing Migrants Project, stated that 2024 We are going to close it with a record of deaths and disappearances in the Darién National Parkwith 173 cases, of which 60 were men, 42 women and 22 minors, and 49 were undetermined.

In addition, he highlighted that for the second consecutive year, there was an increase in lives lost on land routes in Central America, since 401 deaths were documented, of which nearly half were men.

Regarding 2023, 1,267 deaths and disappearances were recorded, of which 30 percent occurred in the north of the region, 3.45 in Central America, 4.19 in the Caribbean and 6 percent in the south.

However, in that period, almost 50 percent of the lives lost occurred along the border between the United States and Mexico, Viales Mora said. He stressed that in general, in 2023 the number of migrants who died in the American continent decreased 13.5 percent compared to 2022.

He said that immigration crossings deadliest in the world corresponds to the Sahara Desert, the crossing of the Mediterranean Sea, the border between the United States and Mexico, the Caribbean Sea and the Darien National Park.