Greece, Italy Witnessed Arrival Of Over 100,000 Refugees In 2016, IOM Says

Over 100,000 asylum-seekers from troubled and war-torn countries migrated from the Mediterranean to Greece and Italy so far this year, the International Organization for Migration said Tuesday. Greece witnessed the arrival of an estimated 42,861 refugees in February, the IOM stated in a report.

More than 413 refugees have lost their lives till date, of which 321 deaths have been recorded on the Eastern Mediterranean route between Turkey and Greece, IOM said, in a statement. According to the organization, 102,547 people had arrived in Greece alone and another 7,507 had arrived in Italy since the beginning of the year.

IOM also noted that asylum-seekers arrivals topped 100,000 in July 2015. Greek officials said that most of the refugees were Syrian, Afghan, Iraqi, Iranian and Pakistani. Others were from Morocco, Bangladesh and Somalia.

“We are still registering the arrival of many vulnerable migrants, who are often in very bad condition, having been subjected to violence by smugglers in Libya. We are also still seeing many women victims of trafficking — an alarming trend already registered in 2015,” IOM Italy spokesperson Flavio Di Giacomo said, in the statement.

According to last Monday’s report, the German government expects 500,000 refugees to arrive in the country this year. Last year about 1.1 million asylum-seekers arrived in Germany.