Majority of deaths in 10 years from drowning: UN

Drowning had been the biggest cause of recorded migrant deaths over the past 10 years, the UN's migration agency said yesterday, with victim numbers topping 36,000.

Of 64,000 migrant deaths recorded by UN's International Organization for Migration (IOM) over last decade, nearly 60 percent were linked to drowning.

Of those deaths at sea, over 27,000 occurred in the Mediterranean, a route followed over the years by many migrants trying to reach southern Europe from northern Africa.

The IOM however stressed the figures published in report were incomplete. Of those recorded, two in three cases remained unidentified. In over half of all cases, the IOM was unable to even establish the sex or age of the migrant.