Number of Mediterranean migrant arrival reduces in 2018

The UN migration agency IOM on Friday reported that 63,142 migrants and refugees entered Europe by sea in 2018 through August 16, fewer than the 119,137 arrivals across the region during the same period last year, and 266,423 at this point in 2016.

Spain, with 42 percent of all arrivals through the year, continues to receive seaborne migrants in July at a volume more than three times that of Greece and almost five times that of Italy, the agency said.

Italy's arrivals through mid-July are the lowest recorded at this point of a normally busy summer sailing season in almost five years.

According to IOM's Missing Migrants Project's latest report, 1,527 migrants have lost their lives crossing the Mediterranean Sea in 2018, or almost seven per day.

According to IOM, over two thirds of those deaths have occurred on the Central Mediterranean route between Libya and Italy, even though fewer than a third of all migrant departures have been along that route.