One million migrants reached Europe by land and sea in 2015 fleeing conflicts and persecution, the UN refugee agency said on Tuesday in what is the biggest movement of people in the continent since World War II.
According to UNHCR, some 972,500 migrants had crossed the Mediterranean Sea in 2015 (as of December 21) in addition to the International Organisation of Migration’s (IOM) calculation of over 34,000 crossings from Turkey into Bulgaria and Greece by land. Syrians accounted for about half a million people or every one in two crossing the Mediterranean in 2015.
Afghans accounted for 20 per cent of the crossings and Iraqis about seven per cent.
80 per cent of the people arriving irregularly into Europe over 800,000 refugees and migrants came via the Aegean Sea into Greece while refugees and migrants crossing North Africa and entering Europe through Italy dropped slightly from 2014 - 170,000 in 2014 to around 150,000 in 2015. The Greek island of Lesbos is now the main gateway into Europe.
IOM through its Displacement Tracking Matrix pegs the arrivals to Europe in 2015 at 1,005,504 with only three per cent coming into the continent through land.