Thousands of victims are missing in the Mediterranean.

Omissions

• IOM's headline figure combines 'dead and missing' rather than missing persons alone: many of the 35,000+ recorded victims are known dead, so 'thousands missing' is an approximate sub-set of a larger documented toll.
• IOM explicitly states its data record documented incidents only and is widely regarded as an undercount, since many shipwrecks leave no trace and are never recorded — the true number of missing is likely higher.
• The specific 'right to a name' proposal the MEP refers to is an element of the parliamentary report he is presenting; its existence and content are matters of the legislative text, not of external statistics, and were not verified here.

Sources

• PrimaryIOM Missing Migrants Project — Mediterranean region'Total Dead and Missing. 35690. Missing Migrants Recorded in Mediterranean (since 2014).' Also: 'Since 2014, Missing Migrants Project has recorded the deaths of tens of thousands of people in the Mediterranean Sea.'
• PrimaryIOM — Missing Migrants Project (Central Mediterranean)'Central Mediterranean. The Central Mediterranean is the deadliest known migration route in the world, with tens of thousands of deaths and disappearances ...'
• PrimaryIOM News — Nearly 8,000 Migrant Deaths Recorded in 2025, New IOM Data'Geneva, 21 April 2026 – Nearly 8,000 migrants were reported dead or missing worldwide in 2025, bringing the total since 2014 to more than 82,000'