1 million migrants arrived in Europe by sea this year

When taken in their totality, the figures correlate to the largest number of people displaced by war and conflict in Western and Central Europe since the Balkan crises of the 1990s.

UNHCR’s latest figures show that some 1,000,573 people had reached Europe across the Mediterranean, mainly to Greece and Italy, in 2015. Most of the others – over 150,000 – crossed the Mediterranean from Libya to Italy.

“The vast majority of those attempting this unsafe crossing are in need of worldwide protection, fleeing war, violence and persecution in their country of origin”, the UNHCR said on its website.

This year, a record 500,000 people fleeing a four-year civil war in Syria have traveled through Turkey and then risked their lives in often fragile boats to reach Greece, their gateway to the European Union.

Syria accounted for 49 per cent of arrivals and Afghanistan 21 per cent, while 8 per cent were from Iraq.

The UNHCR also reported that many refugees and migrants were on board “dangerously inadequate” vessels run by people smugglers. Germany’s interior minister Thomas de Maiziere said Monday the number of migrants arriving in the country has declined significantly over the past week or two.

A growing number of migrants are making the journey to Europe to beat winter weather.

The influx of refugees and migrants has caused tensions across Europe, with some nations toughening border controls.

Greece was by far the most popular arrival point, with 844,176 arrivals, many of them on Lesvos island. “The scale of these sea crossings, the fact that people continue to arrive daily in their thousands on the Aegean islands, and that almost 4,000 lives have been lost in 2015, all beg that question”.