According to the UN refugee agency UNHCR, around 186,000 people have already arrived in Europe via the Mediterranean this year. Most of these, 130,000, were registered in Italy, which corresponds to an increase of 83 percent compared to the same period last year. The director of the UNHCR office in New York, Ruven Menikdiwela, said this in the UN Security Council on Thursday.
The number of missing and dead people in the period from the beginning of January to September 24th was over 2,500 people, it was said. The international migration organization IOM recently spoke of over 2,700 dead and missing people.
According to the United Nations, the largest number of migrants departed from Tunisia, with more than 100,000, followed by Libya with over 45,000. In addition to Italy, the boats also headed to Greece, Spain, Cyprus and Malta. The sharp increase in migration numbers has recently led to tensions within the EU over measures to limit them.
