A United Nations (UN) agency said the US-Mexico border was the deadliest land migrant route in the world after it documented 686 deaths and disappearances.
IOM spokesperson Paul Dillon said, “The alarming figures are a stark reminder of the need for decisive action to create regular legal migration pathways.”
Dillon said the figure represents “the lowest estimates available,” given limitations on reporting all migrant deaths.
Reuters reported that the International Organization for Migration (IOM) documented 686 deaths and disappearances among migrants on the frontier last year.
Still, the actual figure is likely higher due to missing data, including from the Texas border county coroner’s offices and the Mexican search and rescue agency.
Dillon added that the deaths related to migrants were almost half of the 1,457 deaths of migrants documented in the Americas.
“One of the most concerning trends that IOM has seen in the Americas was the increase in deaths on migration routes in the Caribbean,” he continued.
The IOM recorded 141 migrant deaths in the jungle region between Panama and Colombia, known as the Darien Gap.
However, the figure is likely incomplete.
Overall, the most deadliest migrant route was calculated to be the Mediterranean, where more than 2,400 migrant deaths were recorded over the same period of time.
He said 350 deaths had been documented in 2022, compared with 245 in 2021 and less than 170 recorded in previous years, Reuters noted.
However, most of the victims on Caribbean migration routes were migrants from the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Cuba.
“The remote and dangerous nature of this area and the presence of criminal gangs along the route means that this figure likely does not represent the actual number of lives lost,” Dillon said.
Now, the migrant crisis is spilling over into US cities like New York, which once declared themselves “sanctuary cities.”
New York City Mayor Eric Adams abruptly changed his tune, warning the migrant crisis might utterly destroy his city.
READ: New York City Mayor Eric Adams: Joe Biden is DESTROYING Our City with Migrant Crisis
