Background

Since 2014, at least 65,278 people have died, or gone missing while migrating to an international destination^[1.1], with at least 3,400 being migrant children. In 2023 alone, 8,542 people died or went missing, the highest number recorded since 2014, highlighting the extreme dangers migrants face while crossing jungles, seas, or deserts. The Mediterranean remains the deadliest route, accounting for 30,333 deaths and disappearances in the last decade, followed by migration routes across Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Europe.^[1.2]

In the absence of sufficient and accessible regular and safe migration pathways, pushed by increasingly restrictive migratory policies, migrants continue to embark on perilous journeys in search of dignity and safety. Other factors contributing to migrant missing or disappearance include harsh weather and environmental conditions, lack of adequate shelter, food, and water, illness without access to healthcare, hazardous transportation conditions, lack of access to means of communication, separation of families, pushbacks, lack of capacity and/or delay in search and rescue operations, and violence by non-State actors and border and law enforcement officials. Migrants may also disappear as a result of abduction for political or other reasons, or in the context of detention or deportation processes, or as a consequence of smuggling and/or trafficking (A/HRC/36/39/Add.2), including due to collusion between State agents and organized criminal groups engaged in trafficking in persons (para.6, CED/C/GC/1).

Migrant deaths and missing raise serious human rights concerns, particularly about the right to life, the principle of non-refoulement, the prohibition of collective expulsion, the right to family unity, and the rights to the truth, justice and accountability. Some missing migrants could be victims of disappearance, including enforced disappearance (para.4 CED/C/GC/1).The committee on Enforced Disappearances stresses that “the principal distinctive element between a migrant going missing and a migrant becoming a victim of disappearance is the commission of a crime against a migrant”(CED/C/GC/1).

The absence of information about the fate and whereabouts of missing and disappeared migrants causes profound anguish for their families, who are left in a state of prolonged uncertainty. Moreover, when seeking justice, families of missing migrants face numerous barriers, such as limited access to information, fragmented data systems, a lack of interest from authorities in conducting investigations, or complex legal processes, all of which may be worsened by significant psychosocial and financial hardships.

States tend to prioritize border security over human safety, those travel irregularly are often neglected of their human rights and become invisible to legal systems. Failure to investigate all cases of migrant deaths and disappearances, to identify gaps in humanitarian actions and to hold perpetrators accountable, particularly when governmental official are involved, has led to impunity for crimes against migrants and contributed to the growing of the figures of migrant deaths and missing.

States assume national and collective responsibility to preserve the lives of all migrants and prevent migrant deaths and missing. Given the transnational nature of the phenomenon, States have committed to cooperate internationally to save lives and prevent migrant deaths and injuries, including through individual or joint search and rescue operations (Para. 24 of A/RES/73/195). While the Special Rapporteurs welcomes States reaffirming their collective responsibility (Para. 14, A/RES/76/266), there remains a pressing need for enhanced actions at national, regional and international levels to prevent migrant deaths and missing, protect the human rights of migrants, and support their families.

Objectives

The report aims to achieve the following objectives:

• To provide a human-rights analysis on the phenomenon of migrants go missing or disappear during their migration journeys,
• To examine the contributing factors and root causes of the missing migrants phenomenon,
• To examine the human rights impact on families of missing migrants,
• To examine any direct or indirect involvement of State authorities in certain cases of migrant missing or disappearance, which might be characterized as enforced disappearances,
• To identify obstacles in existing national, regional, and international legal and policy frameworks as well as in operational environment of humanitarian actions that may raise or create the risk of migrants going missing,
• To clarify States’ obligations under international law to respect, promote and fulfil fundamental human rights of migrants, including the right to life, to uphold the principle of non-refoulement, the prohibition of collective expulsion, the right to family unity, and the rights to the truth, justice and accountability,
• To identify and address gaps in accountability actions of States in relation to migrant deaths and missing, and
• To provide recommendations aimed at enhancing monitoring, accountability and strengthening preventive and protection measures.

Key questions and types of input/comments sought

To develop a comprehensive and well-informed report, the Special Rapporteur welcomes inputs from a broad range of stakeholders and invites contributions that address the following key questions and areas of inquiry:

1. What data exists on missing and/or disappeared migrants? Please provide any available statistics, disaggregated by nationality, age, gender, and migration status and route, when possible. If you are aware of any limitations to data collection, please explain and indicate how the process could be improved in your views.
2. Please provide information on cases of migrant missing or disappearance where exists direct or indirect involvement of State authorities, which might be characterized as enforced disappearances.
3. What are the root causes and major contributing factors of migrant go missing or disappear during their migration journeys?
4. What are the obstacles in existing national, regional, and international legal and policy frameworks as well as in operational environment of humanitarian actions that may raise or create the risk of migrants going missing and/or disappear?
5. What are the human rights impacts on families of missing and/or disappeared migrants? Please provide information and analysis regarding gendered and differentiated impacts on women, girls, men and boys.
6. What mechanisms are in place to support families in tracing or searches for, locating and exhuming, identifying and returning remains of missing or disappeared migrants, as well as in seeking justices and pursuing the right to the truth? What are the challenges in these processes and how to enhance?
7. What measures should be taken by States, international organizations, civil society and humanitarian actors to enhance monitoring, accountability and prevent migrant deaths and missing?

How inputs will be used?

• Format: Word / PDF (please do not send scanned copies), not exceeding 3,000 words.
• Language: English, French, Spanish.
• Confidentiality: Unless otherwise requested, your submissions will be published on the webpage of the mandate.
• Deadline: Submissions should be sent by 13 December 2024.
• Submission Method: Email inputs to the email address of my mandate [email protected], indicating in the heading “Contribution to UN HRC Report 2025”.

1.1. See IOM - Missing Migrants Project website: International Organization for Migration (iom.int)

1.2. See IOM, A Decade of Documenting Migrant Deaths (2023)