Nearly 8,000 people died or went missing last year along dangerous migration routes such as the Mediterranean and the Horn of Africa, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Thursday, warning the true toll could be significantly higher.

The U.N. agency said reduced funding had affected humanitarian access and the tracking of migrant deaths, meaning some cases may have gone unrecorded.

It added that shrinking legal migration pathways were pushing more people into the hands of smugglers, as Europe, the United States and other regions stepped up enforcement measures and invested heavily in deterrence policies.

“Continued loss of life along migration routes is a global failure that we cannot accept as normal,” IOM Director General Amy Pope said in a statement.