At least 1,078 migrants, including 74 minors, have died or disappeared this year while traveling through the American continent, according to statistics updated by the International Organization for Migration (OIB). The same report indicates that 2,480 migrants have died or disappeared in Mediterranean waters so far in 2023, a figure that already exceeds that of all of 2022.
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He IOM Missing Migrants Projectwhich monitors migratory routes around the world, updated its statistics this Thursday, November 23, in which it indicates that the number of missing and dead people on these routes through the American continent amounts to 1,078, still below that reported last year (1,457).
The region of the Americas (South, Central and North America and the Caribbean) “is characterized by mixed, complex and dynamic migratory flows, both intra-regional and extra-regional”, notes the IOM, organization that has warned of the “unprecedented” migratory movement that is being recorded through Mexico and Central America.
“People transiting the Americas include refugees, asylum seekers, economic migrants, short-term visitors and other people on the move. The factors driving migration and displacement are multiple and include natural disasters, structural violence, poverty and inequality,” he adds.
The Mexican Government estimates that up to 16,000 migrants arrive at the Mexican borders a day. While official data from Panama indicate that last September, more than 385,000 people had crossed the Darién jungle, which divides Colombia, compared to 248,000 in all of 2022, the largest number so far.
In total, since 2014, when the IOM launched this monitoring mechanism, the number of dead and missing in the region has risen to 8,543.. It is considered that the most dangerous routes for land migration are found on the American continent, including the border crossing between the United States and Mexico and the Darién Gap, located between Panama and Colombia.
Of the 8,543 cases of dead or missing migrants since 2014, 4,852 were recorded crossing the Mexican-American border, 503 in the Caribbean traveling to the United States, 342 in Darién and 328 in the maritime crossing from the Dominican Republic to Puerto Rico.
This record also includes 187 migrants who died or disappeared when trying to reach the Caribbean islands from Venezuela, 64 who went from Haiti to the Dominican Republic and 17 on journeys through the Caribbean to Central America.
The year with the most victims on the American migratory routes so far is 2022, with 1,457 dead or missing, followed by 2021, with 1,316, while the year of the period studied in which there were fewer victims was 2014 (493).
More than 550,000 Central Americans detained in Mexico and the US
Data also collected by the IOM indicate that More than 550,000 Salvadoran, Honduran and Guatemalan migrants who were trying to arrive irregularly to the United States were detained between January and September of 2023 on the border with Mexico.
The records, released by the Efe Agency on November 21, point to an increase of 24,010 arrests, going from 526,109 in 2022 to 550,119 in 2023.
According to the data, between January and September, 394,068 arrests were registered in the United States, 0.44% more than the 392,320 in 2022.
While in Mexico it went from 133,789 registrations in the same months of 2022 to 156,051 in 2023, a rebound of 16.6%.
In all of 2022, Mexico registered 169,688 arrests of citizens of the Northern Triangle of Central America (El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala), while in the United States they added 493,560, for a total of 663,248.
According to historical reports, on average about 500,000 people from those three countries try to emigrate irregularly to the United States each year.
On October 22, a dozen governments of Latin American countries, including some of the main senders of migrants in the region, such as Venezuela, Honduras and Cuba, presented a plan to reduce the migratory flow to the north of the continent.
At the meeting, the region’s leaders rejected “coercive” and “selective” policies against migrants and agreed to promote decent employment, food self-sufficiency, and request the expansion of visas and work programs in the United States and Canada.
The route with the most victims continues to be the Mediterranean route
IOM data also indicate that At least 2,480 migrants have died or disappeared in Mediterranean waters so far this yeara figure higher than that of all of 2022 (2,411), making 2023 now the deadliest year for migrants on that route since 2018.
Since 2014, according to the IOM, 28,229 migrants have died or disappeared in the Mediterranean, including 22,436 on the central route (mainly from the coasts of Libya and other Maghreb countries to Italy and Malta) and 3,464 on the western route (to, especially, to Spain).
With information from EFE
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