By Sept. 15, 2026 nearly 60,000 migrants had arrived by sea in Europe — a decline of about 40% year-on-year — while nearly 2,300 people died or went missing crossing the Mediterranean or Atlantic. The Central Mediterranean saw the sharpest drop in arrivals but recorded 996 deaths so far in 2026. IOM Director General Amy Pope urged stronger international cooperation and warned the real death toll is likely higher due to unrecorded shipwrecks and reduced transparency. The agency called for more safe, legal migration pathways and improved rescue coordination.
Fewer Sea Arrivals To Europe, But Deaths Rise — IOM Warns Of Riskier Routes
People perform prayers in Ben Guerdane, Tunisia, Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2026, before a burial for migrants who drowned at sea after their boat capsized off the country's southeastern coast. (AP Photo/Bassem Aouini)(AP Photo/Bassem Aouini)
Significantly fewer migrants reached Europe by sea in 2026, yet the number of deaths and disappearances has risen as people take increasingly dangerous routes, the U.N. migration agency said Thursday.
Coffins of migrants who drowned at sea are prepared for a burial in Ben Guerdane, Tunisia, Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2026, after their boat capsized off the country's southeastern coast. (AP Photo/Bassem Aouini)(AP Photo/Bassem Aouini)
By Sept. 15, nearly 60,000 migrants and refugees had landed on European coasts in 2026 — a drop of almost 40% compared with the same period in 2025, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) reported. Despite lower arrivals, almost 2,300 people died or went missing attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea or the Atlantic Ocean in 2026, up from nearly 2,000 in the same period of 2025.
People perform prayers in Ben Guerdane, Tunisia, Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2026, before a burial for migrants who drowned at sea after their boat capsized off the country's southeastern coast. (AP Photo/Bassem Aouini)(AP Photo/Bassem Aouini)
"Nearly every death and disappearance at sea is preventable," said IOM Director General Amy Pope. "Behind every number is a human being, a family, a community."
The Central Mediterranean route to Italy recorded the steepest decline in arrivals, falling from more than 48,000 last year to just over 21,000 this year. Nevertheless, that route saw 996 deaths so far in 2026, up from 844 in the same period last year.
Funeral workers bury migrants who died while trying to cross from Morocco into the Spanish exclave of Ceuta, Friday, Aug. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Antonio Sempere)(AP Photo/Antonio Sempere)
Since taking office in 2022, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has made reducing irregular migration a central priority, negotiating agreements with North African partners such as Tunisia and Libya and tightening enforcement — including measures that have affected some humanitarian rescue operations in the Mediterranean.
A man, accompanied by funeral workers, prays over bodies of migrants who died while trying to cross from Morocco into the Spanish exclave of Ceuta, Friday, Aug. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Antonio Sempere)(AP Photo/Antonio Sempere)
In Greece, arrivals fell by roughly 5,000 but deaths increased by 47%, driven partly by a shift toward longer and more perilous crossings from eastern Libya to Crete instead of the shorter Aegean route from Turkey.
Fatalities on routes to Spain remained high despite an overall drop in arrivals, largely due to the hazardous Atlantic crossings from West Africa to the Canary Islands. During the Ceuta border crisis on July 30–31, IOM reported at least 97 deaths on the Spanish side of the border with Morocco.
The IOM cautioned that the true death toll is likely substantially higher because many shipwrecks and disappearances cannot be confirmed and go unrecorded. The Associated Press has reported that increased opacity by some authorities about incidents at sea contributes to undercounting.
IOM called for stronger international cooperation to save lives, combat trafficking and expand safe, legal pathways for migration, emphasizing that most deaths at sea are preventable with coordinated action and transparency.
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