The International Organization for Migration (IOM) issued a statement on Thursday saying that 3770 migrants and refugees died in 2015 while "crossing the Mediterranean, trying to reach Europe."
According to IOM's statement, 2015 has been the deadliest year on record for migrants and refugees. It also noted that 1250 died in April alone.
In comparison, 3270 migrant deaths were recorded in 2014, IOM estimated.
The number of migrant and refugee deaths globally reached 5350, according to the statement.
According to the IOM statement, 77 percent of the deaths occurred in the central Mediterranean route, which was mostly used by smugglers from Libyan shores in 2015. That percentage has fallen about 20 percent from the last year on the same route.
Out of these deaths, 21 percent happened in the eastern Mediterranean, IOM's statement said.
The Mediterranean was recorded as "the most deadly region" in 2015, followed by Southeast Asia (mostly in the Bay of Bengal, Andaman Sea, Malaysia, and Thailand), which saw at least 800 deaths this year, the statement added.
The statement also mentioned that within Mexico and along the US-Mexico border there have been at least 330 migrant deaths recorded this year.
“It is shocking and inexcusable that desperate migrants and refugees have lost their lives in record numbers this year...The international community must act now to stop this trend against desperate migrants," said IOM Director General William Lacy Swing according to the statement.
“Migration has been the major theme of 2015, with record numbers of refugees and migrants arriving in Europe, fleeing from conflict, and acute poverty.
“Throughout the year, we have been reminded that much of human mobility is not voluntary and tragically we have seen so many who felt they had no option but to leave their beloved homelands and were lost at sea, in the deserts, or trapped in the back of lorries they had hoped would carry them to a safer and better life,” said Swing.
In the meantime, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said on Wednesday that more than one million migrants and refugees have already crossed the Mediterranean to Europe.
"Nearly half of them are Syrians fleeing the war and poverty," the UNHCR statement recorded.
"The vast majority of those attempting this dangerous crossing are in need of international protection," the agency said.
