At least 615 migrants and refugees have perished so far this year when they tried to arrive irregularly to the coasts of southern Europe, including 217 on the route to Spain, according to a new balance released this Friday by the International Organization for Migration (OIM) .
In total, 22,439 people arrived in Italy, Greece, Cyprus or Spain in the first 122 days of 2018, approximately half in the same period of 2017. Italy accumulates 42% of the arrivals , while in the Spanish case the figure it stands at 4,409, 20% of the total.
The number of deaths has also failed in this period, from 1,123 in 2017 to 615 in 2018, although they have shot up in the case of the route to Spain -from 57 to 217-. The central Mediterranean, with Italy as a destination, continues to be the busiest and most dangerous scenario, with at least 379 deaths.
The balance is based on estimates, to the extent that there is no complete information on the number of people who could have drowned in the Mediterranean while trying to reach the European coasts clandestinely. In addition, the IOM estimates that almost 5,000 people have been returned to Libya by the Coast Guard of the North African country.
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