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Number of refugees, migrants fleeing to Europe reach 1m in 2015
Data from the International Organization for Migration, an organization that works with 162 countries to coordinate immigration issues around the world, indicates most of the migrants are from Syria, Africa and South Asia.
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More than one million migrants have entered Europe this year, marking the largest wave of immigration into the continent since World War II.
Over the year, it said that the number of people crossing the Mediterranean increased steadily from around 5,500 in January to a monthly peak in October of over 221,000.
More than 1 million people desperately fled their war-torn, impoverished and risky home countries and trekked to Europe in search of new, better lives this year, while thousands more died on their perilous journeys. The IOM said that most entered via Greece, with 812,752 people arriving this year.
By contrast, there have been 6,029 deaths between 1998 and 2013 along the second-deadliest border: the one between the United States and Mexico, the International Organization for Migration said.
IOM today operates in all 28 countries of the European Union, as well as in numerous countries today’s Europe-bound migrants and refugees leave from, and the lands they transit.
The massive flow of migrants has also led to security concerns that the Islamic State group will use the crisis to infiltrate Europe to carry out terrorist attacks.
Greece was by far the leading landing spot for migrants to Europe this year, with 821,008 arrivals, including 816,752 by sea.
Rounding out the group of European countries that saw migrant arrivals in 2015 were Bulgaria (29,959), Spain (3,845), Cyprus (269) and Malta (106).
The top five nationalities arriving in Italy were Eritrean, Nigerian, Somalian, Sudanese and Syrian, the IOM said, citing figures from the Italian Interior Ministry.
Being unable to handle the migrant influx, EU urged other European countries to share the burden of housing 160,000 warning that Greece, Italy and Hungary could no longer handle the influx alone.
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Reacting to the statistics UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres said: “As anti-foreigner sentiments escalate in some quarters, it is important to recognise the positive contributions that refugees and migrants make to the societies in which they live and also honour core European values: protecting lives, upholding human rights and promoting tolerance and diversity”.