Number of refugees to Europe halved

geneva - The number of people trying to flee across the Mediterranean to Europe has more than halved in the first half of 2018 compared to a year earlier. This is shown by figures from the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

In the first half of this year 46.449 migrants were counted. In the same period in 2017, there were slightly more than 101,000. That was a large halving compared to 2016 when 231,000 people tried to cross the Mediterranean. The trip over water remains very dangerous. 1412 refugees were killed this year. In 2017 it was 2340 to July.

The decline in Italy is even stronger, says the spokesman for the IOM, Flavio Di Giacomo. According to him, the number of migrants entering that country has dropped by 80 percent compared to 2017 and the trend of declining numbers is still accelerating.

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