Migrant Death Toll Surges 58% from 2023 to 2024, Report Reveals
By Edward Francis Dalliah
The death toll among irregular migrants trying to reach Spain has risen dramatically by 58% from 2023 to 2024, reflecting the escalating risks faced by people fleeing poverty, conflict, and instability.
A recent report from the transnational NGO Caminando Fronteras, which advocates for migrants' rights along the Euro-African Western Border, underscores this alarming trend and calls for urgent action to address the growing humanitarian crisis. According to the report, the number of migrant fatalities reached 10,457 by 15th December 2024, compared to 6,627 in 2023. This represents a sharp increase, with the daily death rate rising from 18 in 2023 to 30 in 2024, according to the report.
Irregular migration, as defined by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), involves individuals moving without the necessary legal documentation, such as visas or permits, to enter, transit, or stay in a country.
The report also highlights that the Atlantic route to the Canary Islands remains the deadliest in the world. Pointing out that there has been a significant increase in boats departing from Mauritania, which, by 2024, became the primary launch point for migrants heading to the islands, documenting about “70.51% tragedies among those travelling in wooden boats from West Africa."
Meanwhile, the Missing Migrants Project, led by the IOM, reported that approximately 8,130 people died during unsafe migration journeys in 2024, marking a 7.13% decrease from the previous year. However, the IOM also revealed that over 71,907 people have lost their lives during such journeys since 2014, most of them by drowning.
The Gambia is among the countries hit by these tragic deaths. According to Gambian migrant activist Ebrima Drammeh, approximately 1,603 Gambians died during the ‘backway’ journey to Europe last year. He noted that 1,557 lost their lives at sea, and 46 died on land. Drammeh also revealed that 1,254 Gambian migrants remain missing, with no trace of their whereabouts.
However, the Caminando Fronteras indicated that “the number of departures from Senegal and Gambia has declined considerably since 2023, particularly during the first few months of the year, but rose again to normal levels from the second quarter. [And] in 2024, there were far fewer people travelling on this route and fewer tragedies as a result.”
The Gambian government, through the Recovery Focused National Development Plan (RF-NDP 2023-2027), identifies poverty, unemployment, weak public policies, and limited industrialisation as key drivers of irregular migration among the youth.
In response to these crises, they have promised to provide 150,000 jobs in five years. In addition to this, the government aims to provide entrepreneurship training for youth at risk of irregular migration, strengthen existing structures like the National Coordination Mechanism (NCM), and continue awareness programs on the dangers of unsafe migration.
