MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The number of migrants who drowned trying to cross the Mediterranean on their way to Europe has topped last year’s total and is nearing a new milestone of 4,000 deaths, a migrant monitor said Tuesday.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) estimated that 3,940 people died or went missing at sea as of October 30, up from 3,700 reported for the whole of 2015.
The IOM found that the number of those coming ashore in Europe has gone down to 333,384, which is well below the 728,926 total registered between January 1 and October 31, 2015.
Around a half of new arrivals – 158,205 migrants – arrived in Italy, which reported an increase of 13 percent from last year. On the contrary, the number of migrants who came to Greece dropped to 169,706 from 587,939 last year.
