Thirty-eight Bangladeshis boarded a rubber boat at the Libyan port of Tobruk on August 3, hoping to reach Greece across the Mediterranean. When the engine failed, all aboard drifted for 10 days without food or water. Nine passengers died and their bodies were thrown overboard before the survivors reached Marsa Matruh on Egypt’s coast on August 13. Egyptian police took them to hospital after rescue, where Mehedi Hasan, a young man from Kishoreganj’s Austagram, passed away during treatment. Authorities recovered another body from the same stretch of coast on August 16.
Another young Bangladeshi disappeared in 2024 after boarding a boat off Libya at night. His last message to his family promised to call once he reached Italy. That call never came. His relatives searched through middlemen, acquaintances and contacts in the region but found no trace of him. They still do not know whether he drowned in the Mediterranean or disappeared along another route. The family still considers him “missing”.
Such cases are not isolated. Thousands of Bangladeshis have met similar fates over the past decade while trying to reach Europe irregularly. Data from the International Organization for Migration’s Missing Migrants Project show that 1,329 Bangladeshis died and 859 went missing in 84 incidents across nine irregular migration routes worldwide between 2015 and 2025.
The Mediterranean accounts for the overwhelming majority. Crossings from Libya or Tunisia to Italy left 1,171 Bangladeshis dead and 773 missing, nearly 90 percent of all recorded Bangladeshi casualties on irregular routes worldwide. The highest annual toll came in 2015, when four maritime incidents alone left 924 Bangladeshis dead and 363 missing. That year, the Mediterranean route accounted for 1,287 Bangladeshis dead or missing.
Even those figures are likely to understate the toll, according to international agencies. The IOM says deaths along migration routes are difficult to track, particularly at sea, where missing people may never be identified and vessels can disappear without leaving passenger lists or casualty records.
For many Bangladeshis, the prospect of reaching Europe is tied to their families’ financial security. Migrants often sell land, take on debt or pool family savings to pay smuggling networks, which move them first to the Middle East or North Africa before arranging the final journey to Europe.
The journey can turn deadly long before they reach the coast. IOM data show that at least 38 Bangladeshis died crossing the Sahara. Another died and 22 went missing along the West Africa and Atlantic route to Spain’s Canary Islands. Twenty more Bangladeshis died on the overland route through Turkey into Europe.
The tragedy involves much more than just boats capsizing in the Mediterranean. For many, the journey to Europe ends in peril long before reaching the sea, as they succumb to harsh deserts, hostile borders, human trafficking rings and months of agonising uncertainty.
Other routes have also claimed lives. Five Bangladeshis died on the Eastern Mediterranean route from Libya to Crete and nearby Greek islands. More deaths were recorded on routes through Iran and Turkey, and from Italy into France.
Beyond the sheer statistics, the most pressing question remains: what happened to the missing? For the 859 Bangladeshis listed as missing by the IOM, the outcome remains unknown. Many bodies were never recovered, while others died in incidents that were never documented. Their families are left without confirmation of what happened.
The gap points to a wider problem with Bangladesh’s irregular migration trends. People who fail to reach Europe often disappear from official records, while many of those who die remain unidentified. This leaves a worrying disconnect between government records, international estimates and the grim reality on the ground.
The scale of the problem is still visible in recent rescues. Md Zakir Hossain, First Secretary (Labour) at the Bangladesh Embassy in Egypt, told Bonik Barta that 70 Bangladeshis had been rescued from seven separate maritime incidents in Egypt during the first six months of 2026 after going missing in the Mediterranean.
“Commercial vessels pulled them to safety after they had been drifting for three to four days,” he said.
The IOM’s latest Global Overview of Migration Routes report shows Bangladeshis were the largest nationality arriving in Italy by sea through the Mediterranean in the first four months of 2026, accounting for 30 percent of the 8,577 irregular migrants who entered the country along the route between January and April. That was down from 37 percent in the same period of 2025, but Bangladesh remained the largest source country.
The route is used mainly for crossing the Mediterranean Sea from North Africa, particularly Libya, to Italy.
Bangladeshis also face risks on routes further east and north. Nine died in eight incidents along the Western Balkan route between 2018 and 2024, with fatalities recorded in North Macedonia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, and Albania.
Another five died along the Eastern Mediterranean route, which is used mainly to travel by sea from Turkey towards Greece and Cyprus. That route has also seen a sharp rise in Bangladeshi movement in 2026. Bangladeshis accounted for 16 percent of migrants using it between January and April, up from 4 percent in the same period of 2025. The route is used mainly to enter Greece from Turkey or Libya.
A further 83 Bangladeshi deaths and 64 disappearances are recorded on unspecified routes.
The scattered nature of these figures makes the true toll difficult to establish, according to migration experts, who say Bangladeshis are the largest nationality using irregular routes to Europe. No government, however, maintains comprehensive records of deaths during irregular migration. Instead, the available data is pieced together from local authorities, coastguards, non-governmental organisations, international agencies and media reports.
Major maritime disasters pose a particular problem. Passenger lists, survivor numbers and the identities of those missing can be difficult to establish, while some vessels disappear without any rescue operation. The IOM describes such cases as “invisible shipwrecks”.
The 2,188 Bangladeshi deaths and disappearances documented between 2015 and 2025 should therefore be treated as a conservative baseline, not a complete tally.
Asif Munir, a migration and refugee specialist, told Bonik Barta that the documented figure represented only a confirmed minimum, adding that the true total is far higher.
“Many leave Bangladesh on valid visas for third countries while intending to enter Europe illegally. Regulating this flow is difficult because their travel documents appear legitimate on paper,” he said.
Educated, middle-class young people are paying between BDT 1.5 million and BDT 2 million for such journeys, treating irregular migration to Europe as a routine and reliable route, Munir added.
He said intelligence assessments indicated that some immigration officials facilitated risky departures, allowing travellers to pass through border controls using pre-arranged signals or codes.
“Unilateral measures won’t dismantle these syndicates. Without international intelligence-sharing and formal bilateral agreements, new networks immediately replace arrested traffickers,” Munir said.
Munir proposed a three-part response, starting with tighter screening at departure airports. “Screening and surveillance at airports must be intensified as a final checkpoint. Immigration officers can assess a traveller’s true destination despite valid credentials. Broad public awareness campaigns are also essential to ensure people understand that this route is both illegal and dangerous. At the same time, formal international cooperation with Interpol and the immigration authorities of transit countries needs to be strengthened.”
IOM data from its Displacement Tracking Matrix show that 7,969 Bangladeshis entered Europe through irregular land and sea routes till July 27, 2026. Its Bangladesh Migration Snapshot Report recorded 24,318 irregular entries in 2025, up from 15,304 in 2024. The figure was 13,773 in 2023, 16,487 in 2022, 7,955 in 2021 and 4,510 in 2020, pointing to a broader rise in irregular movement. Most Bangladeshis using these routes are victims of human-trafficking networks.
Frontex, the European Union’s border agency, identifies Bangladeshis as the largest nationality attempting the Central Mediterranean crossing from Libya into Europe. About 110,000 Bangladeshis entered Europe irregularly through the route between 2009 and June 2026.
The Bangladeshi government says it is trying to curb human trafficking and irregular migration while expanding legal alternatives. Md Nurul Haque, state minister for Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment, told Bonik Barta: “People are risking illegal routes in pursuit of quick financial gain. The government maintains a zero-tolerance policy towards illegal migration. We will work with stakeholders in high-emigration districts to expand awareness and are taking enforcement action against domestic recruitment agencies involved in trafficking.”
The state minister said unilateral action was difficult because international trafficking networks operate across borders. Dhaka is also seeking to expand legal overseas employment and reopen labour markets currently suspended, he said.
“We are running public campaigns to promote legal migration routes. The government’s target is to ensure that all outgoing workers receive vocational training and adequate welfare protection. The government is also working to create more opportunities for Bangladeshis to work legally in foreign countries,” Haque said.