More than 29,000 migrants have died trying to reach Europe since 2014

MORE than 29,000 migrants have died trying to reach Europe since 2014, according to a new report.

New figures from the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), published on Tuesday, show that at least 5,684 people died over the last year alone while attempting to reach Europe through dangerous routes.

The IOM report says the deadliest migration route is the central Mediterranean, for people from Libya and Tunisia trying to reach Malta or Italy.

The UN agency said 2,836 migrants and refugees have died along this route since January 2021.

Some 1,500 deaths have been recorded on the Atlantic route from west Africa to Spain’s Canary Islands since 2021.

The organisation’s Missing Migrants Project has warned of “increasing numbers of deaths” on both sea and land borders to Europe, including in the Channel between England and France.

They say many of the deaths “could have been prevented by prompt and effective assistance to migrants in distress.”

IOM added there was a “structural failure to provide adequate safe pathways.”

The report also said the number of people lost at sea trying to reach Spain doubled in a year.

Syrians made up the largest number of those killed on their way to Europe followed by Moroccans and Algerians.

The number of people killed trying to reach Europe may be significantly higher due to migrant boats that vanish at sea without witnesses.

IOM also said that at least 252 migrants died as a direct result of alleged illegal pushbacks or forced expulsions by “European authorities.”

Ninety-seven of the pushback-related deaths were documented in the central Mediterranean, 70 in the eastern Mediterranean, 58 on the Turkey-Greece land border, 23 in the western Mediterranean, and four on the Belarus-Poland border.

“Such cases are nearly impossible to verify in full due to the lack of transparency, lack of access, and the highly politicised nature of such events,” the IOM report states.

Pushbacks are unlawful, according to both international and European Union law.

“These continuing deaths are another grim reminder that more legal and safe pathways to migration are desperately needed,” said the report’s author, Julia Black.

European authorities deny that pushbacks of migrants are taking place.

This comes as search-and-rescue organisation Sea Watch International report that Italian authorities have blocked their Sea Watch 3 vessel from setting sail.

The organisation says the actions of the Italian authorities “will in the worst case cost human lives.”