Italy - IOM reports that 262,039 migrants or refugees entered Europe by sea in 2016 through 3 August, arriving mostly in Greece and Italy, where 24,000 migrants or refugees arrived during the month of July. 

Through the first eight months of 2015, a total of 354,618 arrivals were recorded crossing the Mediterranean, the majority from Turkey to Greece.

While the overall number of arrivals has declined, IOM’s Missing Migrants Project reports that fatalities in the Mediterranean already have surpassed the total for the first eight months of 2015. The project reports that as of Wednesday (3/8), 3,132 migrants and refugees have died – almost 400 more than at the same time last year.

As departures from Libya – and, to a lesser extent, Egypt – continue to surge with the summer weather, IOM analysts fear hundreds more may die at sea before the end of this month.

“Although migrant arrivals this summer will likely fall well short of totals recorded during the same period last year, the number of deaths is on track to be much higher,” said Julia Black of IOM’s Global Migration Data Analysis Centre (GMDAC) in Berlin, which manages the Missing Migrants Project.

IOM Rome spokesperson Flavio Di Giacomo reported Thursday that official figures from Italy’s Ministry of Interior show 99,020 migrants arrived by sea this year, which is close to last year’s total during the same  period, when arrivals totalled 97,990.

At the same time, arrivals in Greece have fallen considerably. IOM Athens spokesperson Kelly Namia reports that 1,856 migrants and refugees arrived in July. This was the third straight month when arrivals in Greece totalled fewer than 2,000 individuals. By comparison, January, February and March 2016 saw monthly averages of slightly over 50,000 arrivals.

https://missingmigrants.iom.int/sites/default/files/Mediterranean_Update_5_August_2016.pdf

For latest arrivals and fatalities in the Mediterranean, please visit: http://migration.iom.int/europe
Learn more about Missing Migrants Project at: http://missingmigrants.iom.int

For further information please contact:
Flavio Di Giacomo at IOM Italy, Tel: +39 347 089 8996, Email: fdigiacomo@iom.int
IOM Greece: Daniel Esdras, Tel: +30 210 9912174, Email:  iomathens@iom.int or Kelly Namia, Tel: +30 210 9919040, +30 210 9912174, Email: knamia@iom.int
Julia Black, Global Migration Data Analysis Centre, Tel: +49 30 278 778 27, Email: jblack@iom.int
Abby Dwommoh at IOM Turkey, Tel: +903124551202, Email: adwommoh@iom.int
Amr Taha at IOM Egypt. Tel: +202-27365140, Email: iomegypt@iom.int
Itayi Viriri at IOM Geneva, Tel: +41.79.285.4366, Email: iviriri@iom.int
IOM Libya. Othman Belbeisi, Tel +216 29 600389, Email: obelbeisi@iom.int or Ashraf Hassan, Tel: +216297 94707, Email: ashassan@iom.int