Geneva – IOM, the UN Migration Agency, reports that 57,571 migrants and refugees entered Europe by sea through 29 July 2018. That total compares to 112,375 at this time last year.

Spain is currently the main arrival-by-sea country in the Mediterranean with 22,858 migrants arriving since the beginning of the year and 1,866 of them arriving since 25 July alone. This is approximately 16,345 more migrants than arrived in Spain in the same period in 2017. 

Some 18,392 migrants arrived by sea in Italy so far this year, which is 80.6 per cent less than the same period last year.

IOM’s Missing Migrants Project has documented the deaths of 2,323 people while migrating to international destinations in 2018. In the Mediterranean alone, 1,514 people have lost their lives at sea since the beginning of the year.

Most recently, six people died and one went missing in the Eastern Mediterranean. On 29 July, a boat in which 16 people were trying to reach the Greek island of Lesvos capsized off the coast of Ayvalik, Turkey. The Turkish Coast Guard rescued nine survivors but tragically, six people drowned, including three babies. One person is still missing. In the first seven months of 2018, an estimated 96 people have lost their lives in the Eastern Mediterranean.

In the Western Mediterranean, three Algerian nationals went missing off the coast of Cherchell, Algeria, when the boat in which they were trying to reach Spain capsized on 20 July. Ten survivors were rescued by local civil protection authorities. On the United States-Mexico border, US Border Patrol agents retrieved the remains of a person in a ranch near Falfurrias, Texas on 26 July.
 

Missing Migrants Project data are compiled by IOM staff but come from a variety of sources, some of which are unofficial. To learn more about how data on migrant deaths and disappearances are collected, click here.

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

For more information, please contact:
Joel Millman at IOM HQ, Tel: +41 79 103 8720, Email: jmillman@iom.int
Flavio Di Giacomo, IOM Coordination Office for the Mediterranean, Italy, Tel: +39 347 089 8996, Email: fdigiacomo@iom.int
Hicham Hasnaoui, IOM Morocco, Tel: + 212 5 37 65 28 81, Email: hhasnaoui@iom.int
Atigoni Avgeropoulou, IOM Greece, Tel :   +30 210 99 19 040 (Ext. 166), Mobile: +30 69 48 92 98 09, Email: aavgeropoulou@iom.int
Kelly Namia, IOM Greece, Tel: +30 210 991 2174, Email: knamia@iom.int
Ivona Zakoska, IOM Regional DTM, Austria, Tel: +43 1 5812222, Email: izakoska@iom.int
Julia Black, IOM GMDAC, Germany, Tel: +49 30 278 778 27, Email: jblack@iom.int
Christine Petré, IOM Libya, Tel: +216 29 240 448, Email : chpetre@iom.int
Ana Dodevska, IOM Spain, Tel: +34 91 445 7116, Email: adodevska@iom.int
Myriam Chabbi, IOM Tunisia, Mobile: +216 28 78 78 05, Tel: +216 71 860 312 (Ext.109), Email: mchabbi@iom.int