3,400 migrants dead or missing

More than 3,400 migrants died or were recorded as missing as they tried to cross borders around the globe in the first five months of the year — more than 80% of them trying to reach Europe by sea, said the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).

The number is 12% above the 2,780 deaths or disappearances recorded during the same period in 2015. Over the whole of last year, the IOM estimated that 5,400 migrants died or were reported missing worldwide.

Frank Laczko, director of the IOM’s Global Migration Data Analysis Centre in Berlin that tracks missing migrants, said the Central Mediterranean route between Northern Africa and Italy has become the world’s most dangerous passage for migrants.