Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images
The Disappeared Migrants Project of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) documented at least 321 deaths and disappearances of undocumented immigrants in the Caribbean in 2022, the highest number since the Project began in 2014. This also reflects a drastic increase compared to the 2021 figure of 180.
Of that total, 66 were women, 64 were men, and 28 adolescents of both sexes. There are 163 deceased who could not be identified.
The Missing Migrants project reported that during 2022 In the Americas, an average of 3 migrant deaths have been recorded every day.
Using data from the International Organization for Migration’s Missing Migrants Project, @datavizero created a map that pinpoints the locations of migrant deaths and disappearances. pic.twitter.com/c7Ncbu8cLI
– AJ+Spanish (@ajplusespanol) July 27, 2022
“More than 51% of the people who lost their lives on Caribbean migration routes last year have not been able to be identified,” said Patrice Quesada, IOM Regional Coordinator for the Caribbean. “This means that hundreds of families do not have information about the whereabouts of their loved ones.”
Most of the immigrants who died or disappeared were from Haiti (80), Cuba (69), the Dominican Republic (56) and Venezuela (25).
The main cause of death of migrants in the Caribbean is drowning in shipwrecks along the multiple irregular maritime migration routes that cross this region, caused by bad weather conditions that make navigation difficult and the use of precarious boats in poor conditions. conditions or that are not suitable for navigation on the high seas.
A significant number of the recorded incidents occurred on routes leading to the United States, from the Dominican Republic to Puerto Rico, from Haiti to the Dominican Republic and from Venezuela to various Caribbean islands.
Julio César, a Cuban immigrant and the only survivor of the six people who suffered a shipwreck, recently recalled the ordeal of migrating these dangerous routes.
“The boat capsized five times, we lost our meager provisions, and panic and cold overwhelmed them,” he said. “Fear seeps into your bones, your clothes end up completely soaked, the vertigo of the waves (…). I saw them from above, when I was on the crest of the wave, until the water swallowed them up.”
The IOM highlights that preventing migrant deaths must begin through regular migration pathways, defending the right of families to stay together and responding to the needs of migrants who are in a situation of vulnerability.
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