A UN agency found that the border between the U.S. and Mexico was the most dangerous land route for migrants in the world.
A record 686 migrant fatalities and disappearances while journeying to the border between the United States and Mexico was revealed by the Global Organization for Migration this week.
“The concerning statistics serve as a clear reminder of the necessity for prompt action to establish regular legalized migration pathways,” IOM spokesperson Paul Dillon told reporters in Geneva, Switzerland.
He said that the number was “the lowest estimate available” because not all deaths could be reported.
Dillon further stated that almost half of the 1,457 fatalities of migrants in the Americas were because they were trying to get to the U.S.-Mexico border.
In the Caribbean, he added, “the rise in fatalities along migration routes is one of the most alarming trends that IOM has observed in the Americas.”
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said that 141 migrants died in the Darien Gap, a jungle area between Panama and Colombia. However, this number is probably not complete.
“This number probably understates the true number of deaths,” according to Dillon, “because of the area’s remoteness, danger, and the presence of criminal groups along the path.”
The Mediterranean, in which over 2,400 people died during the same time period, was found to be the most dangerous path for migrants as a whole.
After GOP governors began transferring migrants to governments that said they were okay with illegal immigration, the migrant problem in the U.S. spread to places that had once said they were “sanctuary cities.” The Democratic mayor of New York City, Eric Adams, has since changed his mind and said that the migrant disaster could destroy his city completely.
