More than 3400 people have died in the Mediterranean this year trying to reach Europe, the UN refugee agency says, urging governments to take more action to save lives.
More than 207,000 people have made the risky sea crossing since January, almost three times the previous high of 70,000 during the Libyan civil war in 2011, the UNHCR said.
Of these, a record 3419 died, out of a total of 4272 reported deaths worldwide on migrant vessels this year.
Most set off from Libya bound for Italy and Malta, looking for work or, increasingly, asylum - the numbers include 60,051 Syrians and 34,561 Eritreans.
The figures were released at the start of a two-day meeting in Geneva hosted by UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres on how to protect people who take to the sea to escape persecution, war, instability and poverty.
Ahead of the talks involving governments, UN agencies and NGOs, Guterres warned that many states seem increasingly preoccupied with securing their own borders rather than preventing the loss of life.
Without naming specific countries, he said: "This is a mistake, and precisely the wrong reaction for an era in which record numbers of people are fleeing wars."
An arc of conflict around Europe's southern, eastern and southeastern borders, in Libya, Ukraine, Syria and Iraq, has fuelled the numbers heading to the continent.
For many of them Italy is the first port of call and the country has rescued more than 150,000 people from rickety boats already this year.
But Italy recently ended its Mare Nostrum search-and-rescue operation after its European Union partners refused to help fund it, with critics arguing that saving the migrants was simply encouraging them to try their luck.
While the Mediterranean is the most deadly route, it is by no means the only one, with the UNHCR reporting that a total of 348,000 migrants and asylum seekers taking to the sea this year.
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