The US-Mexico border is the deadliest overland migration route in the world – hundreds are losing their lives and going missing while attempting dangerous crossings.
The International Organization for Migration documented 686 migrant deaths and disappearances at the U.S.-Mexico border last year – but the actual number is likely higher due to a lack of data.
A total of 1,457 deaths were recorded along migration routes in the Americas in 2022 – marking the deadliest year on record in the region since at least 2014, when the agency first began documenting deaths and disappearances.
Of these, 566 deaths occurred in North America, 483 in Central America, 350 in the Caribbean and 58 in South America.
In 2022, 686 migrant deaths were recorded at the US-Mexico border crossing, including 105 women, 468 men and 29 minors.
Migrants wave as they walk near concertina wire in the water along the Rio Grande border with Mexico in Eagle Pass, Texas, on July 16, 2023
This does not include the numbers from the Texas border district coroner and the Mexican search and rescue agency.
Most of these deaths are linked to a lack of options for safe and regular mobility, “which increases the likelihood that people see no choice but to choose irregular migration routes that put their lives at risk,” the report said.
In a landscape of sprawling desert, canyons and cactus-covered hills, migrants suffer heat stroke in the summer and hypothermia in the winter, U.S. border officials said.
Some bodies are never found.
Paul Dillon, spokesman for the IOM, said the numbers recorded “represent the lowest estimates available.”
“The alarming figures are a stark reminder of the need for decisive action to create regular legal migration routes.”
IOM said nearly half of the deaths recorded last year were linked to crossing the Sonoran and Chihuahuan deserts.
According to available data, at least 212 people died in the Sahara in 2022.
“One of the most concerning trends the IOM has observed in the Americas has been the increase in deaths on migration routes in the Caribbean,” Dillon said.
He said 350 deaths were documented in 2022, compared to 245 in 2021 and fewer than 170 in previous years. Most victims on Caribbean migration routes were people from the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Cuba.
According to the IOM, 141 documented migrants died at the Darien Gap, a border crossing in the jungle between Panama and Colombia, last year.
“Due to the remote and dangerous nature of this area and the presence of criminal gangs along the route, this number is unlikely to reflect the actual number of lives lost,” Dillon said.
Panama announced new measures last week to curb increasing crossings of the Darien Gap, which reached an all-time high this year.
More worryingly, the main 2022 figure is likely lower than the actual number of migrant deaths at this border crossing, the study found.
Migrants take a break to freshen up before continuing their journey to the U.S. border, in Acandi, Colombia, July 9, 2023
Migrants walk in the Darien jungle in the Lajas Blancas sector in Darien, Panama, August 18, 2023
The report said: “With at least 350 deaths recorded, a key trend in the Americas in 2022 was the unprecedented number of deaths on migration routes in the Caribbean.”
“At least 269 people, including 70 women and 28 minors, died attempting the dangerous sea crossing, primarily to the mainland United States and Puerto Rico.”
“The death toll on Caribbean routes in 2022 is almost double that of 2021 and more than any previous year since 2014.”
“The three most common countries of origin of migrants who died in this region were the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Cuba.” In 2022, 686 migrant deaths (including 105 women, 468 men and 29 minors) were recorded at the US-Mexico border crossing, just 6 percent less than in 2021.
“However, in 2022, IOM was unable to access some official data recorded the previous year, particularly data from several Texas Border District coroner’s offices and the Mexican Search and Rescue Agency.”
“Therefore, the 2022 figure is likely lower than the actual number of migrant deaths at this crossing.”
The Missing Migrants Project warned: “States across the Americas must recognize that the growing death toll represents a humanitarian emergency of major proportions, particularly because there are likely many more deaths during the migration journey than IOM has been able to capture.”
“Better data is urgently needed, but ultimately creating safe, regular migration routes that are accessible to more people is the most effective measure to reduce deaths during migration.”
In August, the U.S. Border Patrol arrested at least 91,000 migrants crossing the crowded border as part of family groups — while detentions rose 30 percent for two straight months.
For the first time during Joe Biden’s presidency, families were the largest demographic migrating across the U.S.-Mexico border – surpassing single adults. The influx follows the introduction of new restrictions to slow illegal border crossings.
A migrant family with young children held by adults stands next to a barbed wire fence as a Texas National Guard member stands guard on the banks of the Rio Bravo, August 28, 2023
Migrants – including infants still wearing diapers – cross the Rio Grande into the United States on August 4, 2023
Migrants – including young children – from Central America are searching for an opening in the accordion barrier south of Eagle Pass, where a 1,000-foot-long line of buoys has been placed in the river to prevent crossing the Rio Grande River into Texas
The influx of children traveling with adults into the US has shown that Biden’s mere warnings about families not crossing the border have gone unheeded
This is more than the previous one-month record of 84,486, set in May 2019 during Donald Trump’s administration, the Washington Post reports.
Preliminary data shows the number of families entering the U.S. in August brings the total this fiscal year to more than half a million people.
The influx of children traveling with adults into the US has shown that Biden’s mere warnings about families not crossing the border have gone unheeded.
Throughout August, images from the border showed a number of families – including very young children, toddlers and babies – scurrying along sidewalks, wading through rivers and scaling fences to get into Texas.
On August 4, a group of adult migrants with at least three accompanying children were seen desperately crossing the Rio Grande, carrying diaper-wearing children on their shoulders.
And images from August 21 showed mothers and fathers dragging their barefoot children over barbed wire fences in a desperate attempt to enter the United States.
According to the Post, Border Patrol arrested more than 177,000 people at the border with Mexico in August. This was up from 132,652 in July and 99,539 in June.