10.7.3 Number of people who died or disappeared in the process of migration towards an international destination

10.7.3 Number of people who died or disappeared in the process of migration towards an international destination

10.7.3 Number of people who died or disappeared in the process of migration towards an international destination

10.7 Facilitate orderly, safe, regular and responsible migration and mobility of people, including through the implementation of planned and well-managed migration policies

Goal 10. Reduce inequality within and among countries

SDG 10.7.3 data are currently based on the International Organization for Migration (IOM)’s Missing Migrants Project (MMP), which since 2014 has documented incidents in which migrants (regardless of legal status) have died or are presumed to have died in the process of migration towards an international destination. This selection of data is based on the currently available sources and can provide some insight into the risks of migration routes.

The MMP aims to provide information on the risks linked to irregular migration movement between states, and thus its definition of a migrant death excludes migrants who die in countries where they have established residence. Deaths in refugee housing, immigration detention centres or camps are similarly excluded unless the death can clearly be linked to a hazard of the journey, e.g. a sickness contracted en route. MMP data also exclude deaths that occur during deportation or after forced return to a migrant’s homeland or third country, as well as deaths more loosely connected with migrants’ precarious or irregular status, such as those resulting from labour exploitation or resulting from lack of access to health care. Disappearances of migrants en route in which there is no presumption of death (i.e. excluding shipwrecks and potential drownings) are also excluded, as missing persons reports are not publicly available, nor are they typically available disaggregated by migratory status.

Concept (based on the IOM Glossary on Migration, 2019):
Irregular migration - Movement of persons that takes place outside the laws, regulations, or international agreements governing the entry into or exit from the State of origin, transit or destination.

No country currently collects / reports comprehensive data on deaths during migration at a national level on their territory / area of effective control. As such, MMP and therefore the 10.7.3 dataset rely on other data providers – including local authorities, NGOs, surveys with survivors and other sources.

Data sources used in the MMP database are: Government: Data on repatriations of human remains; Government: Press releases, official statements; Government: Records of border deaths from border enforcement authorities; Forensic data (i.e. from medical examiners/ coroners); Search and rescue reports from coast guards/ police/ border patrol/non-governmental organizations (NGOs); Testimonies of shipwreck survivors; Testimonies of families of missing migrants; Testimonies of migrants: Survey programmes; NGO reports on deaths during migration; Media: Traditional media reporting and Media: Social media.

The source of data is the International Organization for Migration (IOM) Missing Migrant Project. Disaggregated, incident-based data collected by the Missing Migrants Project is updated on a daily basis and is uploaded to https://missingmigrants.iom.int twice weekly, typically on Tuesdays and Fridays. Data are collected by IOM staff based at IOM’s Global Migration Data Analysis Centre and in its Regional Offices on a daily basis. Disaggregated, incident-based data is uploaded to a public dataset twice weekly at https://missingmigrants.iom.int. This consists of (1) receiving information from the key stakeholders/data sources listed previously (2) monitoring online news and social media for relevant reports; and (3) verifying incidents. As the data contained in the MMP dataset comes from a wide variety of sources, all data are verified by a team at IOM’s Global Migration Data Analysis Centre to ensure that: (1) The incident reported meets MMP’s definition of a death during migration, (2) The information contained in the report is accurate and complete and (3) All new incidents reported are checked against existing records to reduce the likelihood of double counting. The latter process usually consists of searching for separate reports on the same incident which contain similar information, including contacting the relevant authorities for confirmation where possible. The ‘Source quality’ variable in detailed dataset indicates the reliability of the information reported.

The aggregated SDG 10.7.3 dataset us updated annually. The MMP data is disaggregated by sex. This gender identification is based on a third-party interpretation of the victim's gender from information available in official documents, autopsy reports, witness testimonies, and/or media reports. If unknown, it is left blank. The MMP dataset contains the exact coordinates, with place where the death(s) occurred or where the body or bodies were found.

MMP is an incident-based database, meaning that each entry in the database represents a single occurrence in which an individual or group of individuals die during migration or at international borders in one particular place and time. This approach is used instead of a body/human remains-based database due to the fact that many migrant bodies are never recovered, as is for example in remote terrains. MMP and therefore indicator 10.7.3 does not produce statistical estimates of the true number of lives lost given the extreme variance in completeness (coverage and quality) of data.

The MMP dataset cites the data source for each entry in its fully disaggregated incident-based database, available for download from https://missingmigrants.iom.int/downloads

number

None

Republic of Serbia

International Organization for Migration (IOM) - Missing Migrants Project

Annual

MMP data bears witness to the ongoing global crisis of deaths during migration and is the only global database on this topic. It is hoped that by counting and accounting for these deaths, almost all of which are linked to irregular migration, policymakers, academics, and the general public will be better informed about the risks linked to unsafe migration. While data by itself might not bring about change, it can provide the necessary evidence to prompt action. However, it is likely that the data currently available is a vast undercount of the true number of lives lost during migration.

Data for this indicator are taken from the UN SDG global database https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/unsdg

C100703

https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/metadata/files/Metadata-10-07-03.pdf