A report by the International Organization for Migration revealed that at least 4,414 children were killed during global migration journeys between 2014 and 2025, warning that the actual number may be much higher due to a significant lack of documentation of victims' ages.
The report, issued by the Missing Migrants project and published by Euronews, stated that more than 81,000 migrants were lost or died during the same period, with age data missing for more than half of the recorded cases, suggesting a large number of children are not included in official statistics.
Documentation Challenges
The report pointed out that children, despite being among the most vulnerable groups to risks and exploitation during migration, are often the least visible in death records due to weak documentation and difficulties in identifying identities, especially on dangerous migration routes across the Mediterranean Sea.
Calls to Governments
The International Organization for Migration and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) called on governments to strengthen migrant death registration systems, improve data collection and sharing among relevant authorities, to ensure the protection of migrant and displaced children and to monitor the risks threatening them more accurately.
Rising Risks
Global migration routes have seen a worrying increase in the number of migrants losing their lives in recent years while attempting to reach safer countries or countries with better living opportunities, particularly across the Mediterranean Sea and Central America.
Children are among the most vulnerable groups during these journeys due to their exposure to risks of drowning, exploitation, violence, and human trafficking, while international organizations confirm that weak documentation of deaths and difficulties in identifying victims prevent knowing the true scale of human losses among migrant children.
Source: Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA)
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