Off the wire
• Russia vows to respond to U.S. decision to expand sanctions  • Austria to establish eight new asylum quarters  • Yearender: Terror attacks in Africa highlight urgency to tackle root causes  • Meteorologists places 2015 as second hottest year in Austrian recorded history  • Greece recalls ambassador to Prague in protest of Czech president remarks  • Finnish military consider accepting ethnicity in soldier's appearance  • Madrid town hall votes to change names of streets celebrating Franco dictatorship  • Slight rise on Spain's IBEX 35 following post-election jitters  • Russia seeks continuation of trade talks with Ukraine, EU: Putin  • 1st LD Writethru: UN Chief sends condolences to victims of devastating landslide in Shenzhen  
You are here: 　 Home

Roundup: Over 1 mln refugees, migrants flee to Europe in 2015

Xinhua, December 23, 2015 Adjust font size:

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) reported in a joint statement on Tuesday that over 1 million refugees and migrants have reached Europe so far this year.

Latest statistics reveal that as of December 21, some 972,500 refugees and migrants had crossed the Mediterranean Sea to enter Europe, while 34,000 had reached Greece and Bulgaria via irregular land routes.

80 percent of total arrivals, representing over 800,000 people, entered Europe having crossed the Aegean Sea from Turkey into Greece, while the number of people reaching Italy from North Africa dropped slightly this year (150,000) compared to 2014 (170,000).

Some 3,845 maritime migrant arrivals were also recorded in Spain, 269 in Cyprus and 106 in Malta.

These trends are mainly a result of protracted conflicts in countries such as Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq as the number of people displaced by wars reaches the highest recorded levels in Western and Central Europe since the former Yugoslav conflict erupted in the 1990s.

UNHCR revealed that half of those crossing the Mediterranean this year, representing some 500,000 people, were Syrians escaping the country which has been affected by war since 2011.

Further figures show that Afghans accounted for 20 percent of this year's total arrivals while 7 percent were Iraqis.

Though the European reaction was initially chaotic, with border crossings for people moving northwards from Greece proving to be particularly difficult, the refugee agency indicated that a more coordinated response is beginning to take shape.

UNHCR stressed however that more needs to be done to address current challenges, such as reinforcing the required reception capacity at entry points and allowing for the humane and effective accommodation, assistance, registration and screening of people arriving every day.

Identifying those in need of protection, those that should be relocated to other countries within the European Union, and those who do not qualify for refugee protection and for whom effective and dignified return mechanisms have to be put in place is also deemed crucial by the UN agency.

"We know migration is inevitable, it's necessary and it's desirable," said IOM Director General William Lacy Swing.

"But it's not enough to count the number of those arriving - or the nearly 4,000 this year reported missing or drowned. We must also act. Migration must be legal, safe and secure for all - both for the migrants themselves and the countries that will become their new home," he added.

Statistics show that the central Mediterranean route has claimed the lives of 2,889 people this year, while the eastern Mediterranean passage has seen 731 people lose their lives.

This brings the total tally for maritime migrant fatalities this year to 3,692, plus at least 30 more deaths reported by African migrants striving to enter Europe via Spain's Canary Islands.

This means that 400 more people lost their lives compared to last year while reports indicate that the number of fatalities is continuing to rise as 20 new deaths in the eastern Mediterranean have been registered since December 18. Endit