The number of migrants crossing the Mediterranean dropped by nearly three-quarters this year, compared to the same period in 2016, official figures show.
According to the International Organisation for Migration, around 53,000 migrants crossed into Europe through the Mediterranean in the first third of this year. That is just 28 per cent of the 188,000 migrants that dared the crossing in the opening five months of 2016.
The IOM’s Mediterranean Update shows that around four of every five migrants crossing the Mediterranean this year wound up in Italy.
Last year, it was Greece that took the lion’s share of migrants, with 156,000 of the 188,000 arrivals.
According to the IOM report, although the number of migrant crossings decreased substantially, the number of those who did not make it through the perilous journey remained fairly unchanged.
A total 1,300 migrants have lost their lives in the Mediterranean so far this year, just 72 short of the number of estimated deaths for the same period last year.
According to the report, the seas around Malta this year cost many more lives. The central Mediterranean route from the Libyan coast to Italy claimed 1,222 migrant lives this year, some 250 more than 2016.
One “remarkable development”, the IOM said, was the increasing presence of Bangladeshi and Moroccan migrants, who combined made up over 7,000 of some 30,000 arrivals to Italy from North Africa so far this year. There were almost no arrivals from these countries three years ago, the organisation said.
“This year, by the end of February, Bangladeshis registered as the fourth highest nationality at landing points in Italy. By the end of April, they were the second nationality,” said Federico Soda, director of IOM’s Coordination Office for the Mediterranean in Rome.
IOM field staff in Sicily spoke with two groups of Bangladeshi migrants who said they had to rely on “agents” in Bangladesh to organise entire journeys from Dhaka to Libya.
One group reportedly said they had left Bangladesh through an “agency” that promised them work visas for some €5,000.
They added that they had been living in Libya for about a year before trying to get to Europe.