The number of migrants crossing to Europe via sea routes has dropped sharply since January this year, as the journey is becoming more dangerous, according to a new report by the International Organization for Migration (IOM). The agency said about 60,000 migrants and refugees reached Europe by boat so far in 2026, down 39 percent from roughly 98,000 over the same period last year. The new report shows that, despite the decline, at least 2,292 people have died or gone missing attempting the crossing, up from 1,999 over the same period last year, many on overcrowded, ill-suited boats departing Libya’s coast. “These figures tell two stories at once,” IOM Director General Amy Pope said Thursday. “Fewer people are arriving by sea in Europe than at this point last year,” Pope said, noting that “people are still dying and going missing in alarming numbers trying to reach safety”. “Behind every number is a human being, a family, a community,” she added, calling for “sustained international cooperation that saves lives, protects people on the move, combats trafficking and exploitation, and expands safe, regular pathways”. “Nearly every death and disappearance at sea is preventable,” she said. The toll varies by route, but the Mediterranean and Atlantic routes are “the deadliest maritime routes in the world”, according to the IOM.
Arrivals via the Central Mediterranean, the main crossing from North Africa to Italy, fell by more than half, yet deaths there still climbed from 844 to 996. Greece recorded a smaller drop in arrivals alongside a sharp rise in deaths, from 284 to 417. Spain saw both arrivals and its overall numbers fall, though 879 people died or went missing on routes leading there. The migration agency says the majority of people attempting to migrate are fleeing war and persecution.
IOM surveys of migrants on the Central Mediterranean route found most cited economic hardship as their main reason for leaving, followed by conflict and targeted violence. The agency has documented that more than 104,000 people have recently fled the war in Yemen, alongside large-scale displacement out of Lebanon and Syria amid the region’s ongoing conflicts. The true death toll is almost certainly higher, IOM noted, since many boats vanish without ever being recorded. Several European governments have pushed recently towards tougher border policies, driven in part by growing pressure from right-wing parties across the continent.
The European Union agreed in June to new rules allowing migrant deportations to countries outside the bloc. IOM is calling instead for more legal migration routes into Europe and stronger measures to reduce the risks along existing crossings. The report follows a migration crisis that gripped Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta in July, when more than 70,000 people crossed from Morocco over two days. At least 90 people died en route, triggering weeks of nationwide protests over the government’s handling of the influx.
