‘Deadliest year yet’: UN warns over migration deaths in Americas
At least 634 migrants have lost their lives in the Americas in 2019 – marking what may be the deadliest year for people on the move there since records began six years ago.
That information comes from the International Organization for Migration ( IOM), which reports that the biggest increase in fatalities last year was in the Caribbean, where 157 died at sea trying to reach the islands: a sixfold increase over 2018.
IOM said the rise in migrant deaths is due to Venezuelans fleeing the continuing economic and political crisis in their homeland.
