A new study has labeled the border crossing between the U.S. and Mexico the deadliest migration land route in the world, Fox News reports.
More than 1,238 lives have been lost during migration in the Americas in 2021, among them at least 51 children, according to new data published by the International Organization for Migration´s (IOM) Missing Migrants Project (MMP). At least 728 of these deaths occurred on the United States-Mexico border crossing, making this the deadliest land crossing in the world, according to the data.
“The number of deaths on the United States-Mexico border last year is significantly higher than in any year prior, even before COVID-19,” Edwin Viales, author of the report, said. “Yet, this number remains an undercount due to the diverse challenges for data collection.”
Many deaths recorded on these routes are from countries with high numbers of asylum seekers. At least 136 Venezuelans have died in transit in the last 18 months, in addition to 108 Cubans and 90 Haitians. However, the largest demographic in the available data on migrant deaths in the Americas is unidentified people. The countries of origin of over 500 people whose deaths were recorded since 2021 are listed as ‘unknown’.
“Our data shows the growing crisis of deaths during migration in the region, and the need to strengthen the forensic capacity of the authorities to identify deaths on these routes,” he added. “We cannot forget that every single number is a human being with a family who may never know what happened to them.”
Biden will continue this open border policy and he will cancel the Remain in Mexico policy.
