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Geneva / AFP
Global migrant deaths have topped 4,000 in the first seven months of this year, a 26-percent increase in the fatality rate compared with the same period of 2015, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Tuesday.
The total of 4,027 migrant deaths this year includes those who perished crossing the Mediterranean as well as others who died on the North African route and at the Turkey-Syria border, according to the Geneva-based IOM.
Some 3,120 people have died since January 1 while trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea. The most deadly route has been the crossing towards Italy, which has cost 2,692 lives, followed by the routes to Greece (383) and Spain (45).
IOM raised its Mediterranean death toll on Tuesday after 33 more bodies were discovered in recent days off the Libyan coastal town of Sabratha.