The majority of the deaths were from drowning, with the Mediterranean crossings from North Africa and Turkey seeing the biggest increase, up from 2,411 in 2022 to 3,129 in 2023.
The International Organization for Migration warns, however, that the figures are only minimum estimates, as so many deaths during migration go unrecorded due to their remote and inhospitable location or simply being lost at sea.
The Missing Migrants Project, set up in 2014 after a surge in the deaths in the Mediterranean by those attempting to cross from North Africa to the Italian island of Lampedusa, tracks deaths of migrants, including refugees and asylum-seekers, who have died or gone missing during migration towards an international destination.
