US-Mexico border is officially the DEADLIEST in the world: At least 686 deaths and multiple migrants going missing makes it the most dangerous crossing

The US-Mexico border is the world’s deadliest land migration route, with hundreds of people losing their lives and going missing while attempting to make dangerous crossings.

The International Organization for Migration documented 686 deaths and disappearances of migrants at the US-Mexico border last year – but the actual figure is likely higher due to missing data.

In 2022, a total of 1,457 fatalities were recorded along migration routes in the Americas. This is the region’s deadliest year on record since at least 2014, when the agency first began documenting deaths and disappearances.

Of these, 566 deaths occurred in North America, 483 in Central America, 350 in the Caribbean and 58 in South America.

In 2022, the US-Mexico border crossing recorded 686 migrant deaths, including 105 women, 468 men and 29 minors.

This does not include figures from the coroner’s offices in the Texas border region and the Mexican Search and Rescue Service.

Most of these fatalities are linked to the lack of options for safe and regular mobility, “which increases the likelihood that people will see no choice but to opt for irregular migration routes that endanger their lives,” the report said.

In a landscape of vast deserts, canyons and cactus-covered hills, migrants are falling prey to heat stroke in the summer and hypothermia in the winter, U.S. border officials say.

Some bodies are never found.

Paul Dillon, spokesman for IOM, said the recorded figures “represent the lowest estimates available.”

“The alarming figures are a stark reminder of the need for decisive action to create regular legal migration routes.”

IOM said almost half of the deaths recorded last year were linked to crossing the Sonoran and Chihuahuan deserts.

According to available data, at least 212 people died in the Sahara in 2022.

“One of the most concerning trends IOM has seen in the Americas has been the increase in deaths on migration routes in the Caribbean,” Dillon said.

He said 350 deaths had been documented in 2022, compared to 245 in 2021 and fewer than 170 in previous years. Most victims on Caribbean migration routes were people from the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Cuba.

According to IOM, there were 141 documented migrant deaths last year at the Darien Gap, a jungle border crossing between Panama and Colombia.

“The remote and dangerous nature of this area and the presence of criminal gangs along the route means that this figure is unlikely to represent the true number of lives lost,” Dillon said.

Panama last week announced new measures to curb the increase in migrant crossings through the Darien Gap, which reached a record high this year.

Quite worryingly, the headline figure for 2022 is likely lower than the actual number of migrant deaths at this crossing, the study found.

Migrants take a break to freshen up before continuing their journey to the US border, in Acandi, Colombia, July 9, 2023

Migrants walk in the jungle of Darien, in the Lajas Blancas sector, in Darien, Panama, August 18, 2023

The report said: ‘With at least 350 deaths recorded, a major trend in America in 2022 was the unprecedented number of fatalities on migration routes in the Caribbean.

“At least 269 people, including 70 women and 28 minors, lost their lives attempting the dangerous sea crossing, mainly to the continental United States and Puerto Rico.

“The death toll on Caribbean routes in 2022 is almost double the number of fatalities in 2021 and more than in any year since 2014.

“The top three countries of origin of migrants who died in this region were the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Cuba. In 2022, 686 migrant deaths (including 105 women, 468 men, and 29 minors) were recorded at the U.S.-Mexico border crossing, just 6 percent fewer than in 2021.

“However, in 2022, IOM did not have access to certain official data recorded the year before, specifically data from several coroner’s offices in the Texas border regions and the Mexican Search and Rescue Service.

“Therefore, the 2022 figure is likely lower than the actual number of migrant deaths at this intersection.”

The Missing Migrants Project warned: “States across the Americas must recognize that the growing death toll is a humanitarian emergency of major proportions, especially as it is likely that many more deaths occur during the migration transit than IOM has been able to record.

‘Better data is urgently needed, but ultimately creating safe, regular migration routes that are accessible to more people is the most effective measure to reduce the number of deaths during migration.’

In August, U.S. Border Patrol apprehended at least 91,000 migrants crossing the crowded border as part of family groups — as apprehensions rose 30 percent for two consecutive months.

For the first time during Joe Biden’s presidency, families were the largest demographic group moving across the U.S.-Mexico border — surpassing single adults. The influx follows the introduction of new restrictions to slow illegal crossings.

A family of migrants, with young children held by adults, stand next to a barbed wire fence as a member of the Texas National Guard stands guard on the banks of the Rio Bravo River on August 28, 2023

Migrants – including young children still in diapers – cross the Rio Grande into the United States on August 4, 2023

Migrants – including young children – from Central America search for an opening in the concertina wire barrier south of Eagle Pass, where a series of 1,000-foot-long buoys have been placed in the river to prevent them from crossing the Rio Grande River into Texas

The influx of children traveling with adults to enter the US has shown that Biden’s mere warnings about families not crossing the border have not been heeded.

This is more than the previous monthly record of 84,486 in May 2019, which occurred during Donald Trump’s term, the Washington Post reports.

The number of family units entering the U.S. in August brings the total number this fiscal year to more than half a million people, preliminary data shows.

The influx of children traveling with adults to enter the US has shown that Biden’s mere warnings about families not crossing the border have not been heeded.

In August, images from the border showed several families — including very young children, toddlers and babies — rushing through catwalks, wading through rivers and climbing over fences to enter Texas.

On August 4, a group of adult migrants with at least three accompanying children were seen desperately crossing the Rio Grande as the diaper-wearing children traveled on their shoulders.

And in footage from August 21, mothers and fathers were seen hoisting their barefoot children over barbed wire fences in struggling attempts to enter the US.

Border Patrol made more than 177,000 arrests along the border with Mexico in August, according to Post data. This was an increase from 132,652 in July and 99,539 in June.