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Report: 7,667 Migrants Died on Global Routes in 2025

Is Europe's migration system a deadly exploitation machine or are robust policies protecting existing populations?
Report: 7,667 Migrants Died on Global Routes in 2025
Above: Migrants rescued from a dinghy in the Mediterranean Sea being assisted by the Spanish Red Cross at Port of Malaga on Sept. 19, 2018. Image credit: Jesus Merida/SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images

The Spin

Left narrative

Europe's migration system has become a death machine that deliberately erases lives while exploiting desperate people for cheap labor. The Mediterranean border doesn't just kill thousands annually — it strips migrants of rights, forces them into undocumented work and buries victims in unmarked graves while Europe profits from their exploitation.

Right narrative

There are many safe and robust asylum routes available for individuals wishing to migrate into Europe, meaning those who take the decision to enter illegally typically don't meet the criteria for this kind of help. Criticism of the current system often comes from a place of privilege, and is parroted by those in society who can comfortably go unaffected by influxes of economic, low-skilled migrants, many of whom fail to integrate with existing Western society and value systems, and even commit crimes against local populations.

Metaculus Prediction


Go Deeper


Political split

LEFT

RIGHT



© 2026 Improve the News Foundation. All rights reserved.Version 6.18.0

© 2026 Improve the News Foundation.

All rights reserved.

Version 6.18.0