MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Nearly 130,000 migrants and refugees have crossed the Mediterranean Sea to enter Europe since the beginning of this year, with 98,072 of them coming to Italy, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Friday.
"IOM, the UN Migration Agency, reports that 120,975 migrants and refugees entered Europe by sea in 2017 through 23 August," the IOM said in a statement.
According to the UN migration agency, 271,951 Mediterranean arrivals were recorded in the same period last year.
Since 2015, Europe has been experiencing the worst migration crisis in its history, struggling to accommodate hundreds of thousands of refugees and migrants fleeing hostilities in the Middle Eastern and North African countries.
