GENEVA, Feb. 6 (Xinhua) -- The number of migrants who died crossing the United States-Mexico border in 2017 remained high, despite a 44 percent fall in border arrests reported by the U.S. Border Patrol between 2016 and 2017, the UN migration agency IOM said Tuesday.
In 2017, 412 migrant deaths were recorded compared to 398 in 2016, IOM spokesperson Joel Millman said, quoting data compiled by IOM's Missing Migrants Project based in Berlin.
"It is curious that with total crossing appearing to drop so sharply, for deaths to be rising is troubling," said Millman at a UN media briefing.
His concern at the high number of death was repeated by Frank Laczko, director of IOM's Global Migration Data Analysis Center.
"The increase in deaths is especially concerning, as the available data indicate that far fewer migrants entered the U.S. via its border with Mexico in the last year," said Laczko.
The U.S. Border Patrol reported 341,084 migrant apprehensions on the southwestern border of the United States in 2017, compared to 611,689 apprehensions in 2016.
As the likelihood of arrest grows, migrants tend to seek out more remote routes to avoid apprehension, IOM said.
The prolonged exposure to the extreme environments at the border, where temperatures often top 40 degrees centigrade, combined with the difficulty of bringing assistance those in need in remote areas, have repeatedly been cited as leading causes of death.
Texas, where 191 migrant deaths were recorded in the last year, is of particular concern, with a 26 percent increase in 2017 from the 151 fatalities recorded in the state bordering Mexico in 2016.
Millman noted that in July 2017, the tragedy of 10 migrants who died while being trapped in the back of a tractor-trailer in a parking lot in Texas received widespread media coverage.
He noted, "Most deaths recorded in the border region occur in relatively low numbers. Those deaths, recorded almost daily during summer months, rarely make headlines beyond the victims' home communities."
