Over 100,000 Migrants Cross Med to Europe since January: UN

More than 100,000 migrants and refugees have made the perilous journey across the Mediterranean to Europe since the beginning of the year, and 2,247 have died trying, the UN said Tuesday.


Between January 1 and July 3, more than 85,000 migrants landed in Italy, nearly 9,300 arrived in Greece, nearly 6,500 arrived in Spain and over 270 landed in Cyprus, the UN's International Organization for Migration (IOM) said.

While the numbers are staggering, they remain far below last year's figures.

During the same period in 2016, 231,503 people made the crossing to Europe, with the 100,000-mark passed already in February that year, AFP reported.

But at that time most of the migrants were crossing from Turkey to Greece, and an EU deal with Ankara in March last year effectively hit the brakes on that movement.

So far this year, Italy has meanwhile taken in nearly 85 percent of the people crossing the Mediterranean.
 (Tasnim)
4/7/17