Over 3,000 people died or went missing while trying to cross the Mediterranean and Atlantic to Europe last year - doubling the toll from a year earlier, the UN said Friday.

"Of the 2021 total, 1,924 people were reported dead or missing on the Central and Western Mediterranean routes, while an additional 1,153 perished or went missing on the Northwest African maritime route to the Canary Islands," UN refugee agency spokesperson Shabia Mantoo told reporters in Geneva.

"The number of deaths reported in 2020 was 1,544 for the two routes," she added.