CED/C/GC/1 include addressing and reducing vulnerabilities in migration, saving lives and establishing coordinated efforts on missing migrants, and countering trafficking in persons in the context of international migration (objectives 7, 8 and 10). 4. Missing persons, as understood by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) for the purposes of its operations, are persons whose whereabouts are unknown to their relatives and/or who, on the basis of reliable information, have been reported missing in accordance with national legislation in connection with an international or noninternational armed conflict, a situation of internal violence or disturbances, natural catastrophes or any other situation that may require the intervention of a competent State authority. 8 The International Organization for Migration (IOM), as part of its Missing Migrants Project, collects data on migrants who have died at the external borders of States or in the process of migrating towards an international destination, including as a result of transport accidents, shipwrecks or violent attacks or owing to medical complications during their journeys. 9 Some missing migrants could be victims of disappearance, including enforced disappearance. The principal distinctive element between a migrant going missing and a migrant becoming a victim of disappearance is the commission of a crime against a migrant, as provided in articles 2, 3 and 5 of the Convention. 5. The Committee notes with great concern that deaths and cases of disappearance are widely reported along various migration routes. 10 The issue was first addressed by the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances in 2017, in its report on enforced disappearance in the context of migration,11 and has not improved since. However, accurate data on the number of victims of disappearance among missing migrants are not available or are inaccurate, 12 owing to a lack of systematic data collection and shared databases, insufficient cooperation among States and lack of political will, barriers (linked, inter alia, to the situation of vulnerability of migrants and their relatives) to reporting cases of disappearance falling under articles 2 and 3 of the Convention, and the failure of authorities to conduct serious, effective and diligent searches and investigations. This lack of accurate and disaggregated data hinders the adoption of policies and strategies to prevent the enforced disappearance of migrants and increases the vulnerability of migrants to becoming victims of this crime. 6. Different factors contribute directly or indirectly to the disappearance of migrants (falling under articles 2 and 3 of the Convention), or the risk thereof. Various practices by some States and their agents in the context of restrictive and dehumanizing border governance directly contribute to the disappearance of migrants. These practices include immigration detention, “pushbacks” and “chain pushbacks” on land or at sea, the systematic failure of search and rescue,13 and collusion between State agents and organized criminal groups engaged in trafficking in persons.14 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 2 ICRC, Guiding Principles/Model Law on the Missing: Principles for Legislating the Situation of Persons Missing as a Result of Armed Conflict or International Violence – Measures to Prevent Persons from Going Missing and to Protect the Rights and Interests of the Missing and Their Families (Geneva, 2009), art. 2 (1). The project data also include corpses found at border crossings that are categorized as the bodies of migrants on the basis of belongings and/or the characteristics of the death. A/76/642, para. 74. Current efforts to record data are mainly carried out by non-governmental and international organizations. According to the IOM Missing Migrants Project, more than 50,000 migrants have gone missing since 2014. See also Julia Black, Global Migration Indicators 2021: Insights from the Global Migration Data Portal (Geneva, IOM, 2021), pp. 38 and 39. A/HRC/36/39/Add.2. A/72/335, para. 2; and A/HRC/36/39/Add.2, para. 56. Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), “‘Lethal disregard’: search and rescue and the protection of migrants in the central Mediterranean Sea” (Geneva, 2021); and Noemi Magugliani and Jean-Pierre Gauci, “Migrant crossings in the Channel: non-assistance, securitisation, and accountability under international law”, Opinio Juris, 21 December 2021. A/HRC/36/39/Add.2, paras. 34–43. See also Human Rights Commission of Malaysia and Fortify Rights, “Sold like Fish”: Crimes against Humanity, Mass Graves, and Human Trafficking from Myanmar and Bangladesh to Malaysia from 2012 to 2015 (2019). GE.23-19531