More than 4,400 child migrants have died over the past 12 years, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM). The figure comes from the UN agency's tracking of deaths recorded along the world's migration routes, and Banglanews24 reported it as a single hard count spanning just over a decade.

The number matters because it counts children alone. Migration deaths are usually reported as one total, mixing adults and minors. Splitting out the child figure gives governments and aid agencies a measure of how deadly the routes remain for the youngest people on the move.

What does the figure cover?

The IOM count covers 12 years of recorded deaths of children on the move. The agency collects this data through its missing migrants project, which logs deaths reported along migration corridors worldwide.

The reported total stands at more than 4,400 children. That is an average of roughly 367 child deaths per year, or about one child death recorded for every day of the 12-year period.

Who is counted, and who may be missing?

The figure counts children who died on migration routes and whose deaths were recorded. Deaths that go unrecorded — bodies never recovered, shipwrecks with no survivors, remote desert crossings — do not enter the count.

This means 4,400 is best read as a floor, not a ceiling. Many migration deaths, adult and child alike, never reach any registry.

Why does the IOM publish this count?

The agency publishes migrant death figures to give states, researchers and humanitarian organisations a factual basis for policy. The data is used to identify which routes carry the highest risk and where search, rescue and identification efforts should focus.

In short, the 12-year count of more than 4,400 dead children is the agency's evidence base for arguing that migration routes remain lethal for minors.

What should readers take from the number?

One figure, 4,400-plus child deaths across 12 years, condenses more than a decade of loss into a single measurable fact. The takeaway in plain words: children keep dying on migration routes at a steady rate of about one per day, and the recorded count almost certainly understates the real toll.

This article reports publicly announced figures. It does not provide legal or humanitarian advice for individual cases. Readers seeking official data should consult the International Organization for Migration's published records directly.