The data presented here are the product of exhaustive monitoring carried out by Ca-minando Fronteras 365 days a year. Working with migrant communities, rescue services, family networks and human rights defenders on the ground, we collect, confirm and systematise the necessary data.
In 2018, we detected a total of 843 victims on the western Euro-African border. The Alboran Sea was by far the deadliest route (722 victims), followed by the Strait of Gibraltar (113). There were fewer deaths and disappearances on the Canary Islands route and at the border fence in Melilla, with 6 and 2 victims respectively.
The number of missing people was 648, while 195 people’s bodies were found. They lost their lives in a total of 61 different shipwrecks: one on the Canary Islands route, 21 on the Strait of Gibraltar route and 40 on the Alboran Sea route.
Twelve boats disappeared without a trace, along with everyone on board. Six boats sank in the Strait of Gibraltar and another six went missing in the Alboran Sea.
