Italy - IOM reports that 302,975 migrants and refugees entered Europe by sea in 2016 through 1 October, arriving mostly in Greece and Italy. Some 167,074 people have arrived in Greece and 132,069 in Italy during 2016. The total is well below the number of arrivals at this point in 2015, when some 518,181 migrants and refugees had made the journey.

But the death toll in 2016 has been consistently higher. This year some 3,502 people have been reported drowned or missing in incidents off Egypt, Libya, Greece, Italy, Turkey, Morocco and Spain. In 2015 at this time the total was 2,926. 

IOM Rome reported Monday that while only 25 migrants have been rescued in the Channel of Sicily and brought to land since our last report on Friday, according to latest updates from authorities, over 2,300 migrants were rescued Monday in the Channel of Sicily.

Monday also marks three years since a shipwreck off the Italian island of Lampedusa claimed 368 victims. For Italy, Monday was also the first official Remembrance Day for those victims.

According to IOM’s Missing Migrants Project, in the three years since the 2013 Lampedusa tragedy, close to 11,000 men, women and children have died seeking to enter Europe via Mediterranean sea routes. That works out to about 10 deaths per day.

Mediterranean Developments

Total arrivals by sea and deaths in the Mediterranean 2015-2016

* As of 29 September 2016

On Monday IOM Athens reported that the Hellenic Coast Guard rescued 100 migrants in three incidents off Chios and Samos islands. Through the first two days of October, 191 men, women and children landed on Greek islands. Another 153 landed on the last day of September.

Total arrivals in August, September and the beginning of October come to just 6,777 migrants. That compares with more than 57,000 arriving each of the first two months of this year, plus another 36,000 during the months of March, April, May, June and July.

For the latest Mediterranean Update infographic: 
Migration.iom.int/docs/Mediterranean_Update_4_October_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 at IOM GMDAC, Tel: +49 30 278 778 27, Email: jblack@iom.int
Mazen Aboulhosn at IOM Turkey, Tel: +9031245-51202, Email: aboulhosn@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
Christine Beshay, IOM Egypt. Tel: + 20 2 273 651 40/1 Email: cbeshay@iom.int

For information or interview requests in French:
Florence Kim, OIM Genève, Tel: +41 79 103 03 42, Email: fkim@iom.int
Flavio Di Giacomo, OIM Italie, Tel: +39 347 089 8996, Email: fdigiacomo@iom.int