The International Organization for Migration says the number of migrant deaths in the Americas in 2019 has passed 500. Almost half of the deaths were recorded at the US-Mexican border.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/U. Ruiz
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A total of 514 migrants have died in the Americas so far this year, an increase of about 33% from a year ago, the UN migration agency said on Friday.
It is the fastest that the 500 mark has been reached since the International Organization for Migration (IOM) began counting in 2014.
Nearly half of all deaths — 247 — were recorded on the US-Mexico border.
IOM spokesman Joel Millman said that the "turmoil" in Venezuela may account for "much of 2019's fatality surge."
More than 4 million people have left Venezuela since 2015.
IOM has confirmed 89 deaths of Venezuelans this year, second only to more than 100 who were of unknown nationalities.
The vast and perilous US-Mexico border
Stretching 3,000 kilometers from the Pacific to the Gulf of Mexico, the United States-Mexico border has become the epicenter of the migration policy debate in North America.
Image: picture-alliance/Zuma Press/C. Guzy
Tijuana and San Diego's walled beach
A large wall stretches into the Pacific Ocean at the beaches of San Diego and Tijuana, two populous cities separated by the US-Mexico border. It is one of the most secure areas of the frontier and is part of the 1100 kilometers (700 miles) of fencing that have been completed thus far.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/G. Bull
Politically divisive
The fight over how to secure the border has divided Republicans, who support more fencing, and Democrats, who argue that using technology is more effective. Experts estimate it would cost $15-25 billion (€13-22 billion) to fully wall off the entire southern frontier.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/NurPhoto/D. Peinado
The dangerous desert stretch
Large swaths of the border are covered in desert, desolate and uninhabited. Many migrants try to cross these areas, where they fall victim to disorientation, dehydration and where the risk of death is high. Activists often leave water (pictured) and other supplies to help migrants survive the dangerous trek.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/newscom/A. Drehsler
The Rio Grande
Roughly half of the 3,000-kilometer border falls along the snaking Rio Grande. Migrants regularly attempt to cross the river, either by swimming or on rafts. The calm appearance of the Rio Grande is deceitful, as it is a fast-moving river with dangerous currents.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/German Garcia
Crowded points of entry
The US-Mexico border is considered the most transited frontier in the world. Most of the movement takes place at the various points of entry, where lawful back-and-forth traffic and asylum-seekers meet. The Matamoros-Brownsville International Bridge (pictured) is one of 44 official points of entry and the last one before the border ends at the Gulf of Mexico.
The two had died attempting to cross the Rio Grande, which divides the two countries.
Millman told reporters in Geneva that the death rate on the US-Mexico border hasn't changed much in the last six years of tracking such figures, which amount to about one per day.
Overall, just over half of the deaths this year — 259 — were caused by drowning, such as in shipwrecks in the Caribbean or failed river crossings.
About 65 were from highway crashes, and around 20 each on railroad routes, from dehydration or exposure, violence including homicide, and sickness or lack of medical care.
Millman said the figures don't include people who died in detention, of whom there were eight in the US and three in Mexico.
