Italy - IOM reports that 263,636 migrants and refugees entered Europe by sea in 2016 through 7 August, arriving mostly in Greece and Italy. Italy saw 24,000 migrants and refugee arrivals during the month of July. 

IOM Rome reported Monday that 1,241 migrants have been rescued in the Channel of Sicily since Friday 5 August. According to the Italian Ministry of Interior, some 100,244 migrants have arrived by sea in Italy so far this year. This is virtually the same as in 2015, when arrivals at this point totalled 100,179.

IOM’s Missing Migrants Project reports migrant and refugee fatalities in the Mediterranean have already surpassed the total for the first eight months of 2015. The project recorded the deaths of 3,176 migrants and refugees through Sunday (8 August), including some 50 bodies recovered in Libya last week. The victims were of various nationalities and were washed ashore in Al Mayah.

“This puts us at nearly twice the number of deaths reached in the Mediterranean at this same point in 2014,” said Julia Black of IOM’s Global Migration Data Analysis Centre (GMDAC), which compiles Missing Migrants Project data in Berlin.

“In 2014, 1,607 migrants and refugees were recorded dead and missing through the first week in August, compared with 3,176 recorded through the same period this summer. In 2015 the figure was 2,208,” she added.

According to IOM staff on the Greek islands, 127 migrant and refugee arrivals were registered on Sunday (7/8) and 80 on Saturday (6/8).

For the latest infographic please go to:
https://missingmigrants.iom.int/sites/default/files/Mediterranean_Update_9_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
Joel Millman at IOM Geneva, Tel: +41.79.103-8720, Email: jmillman@iom.int
IOM Libya: Othman Belbeisi, Tel +216 29 600389, Email: obelbeisi@iom.int or Ashraf Hassan, Tel: +216297 94707, Email: ashassan@iom.int