8,501 TOTAL ARRIVALS TO EUROPE IN 2018
7,174 ARRIVALS BY SEA IN 2018
1,327 ARRIVALS BY LAND IN 2017
186,768 TOTAL ARRIVALS TO EUROPE IN 2017
Highlights
DTM flow monitoring data for Mediterranean shows that there were 8,501 new sea and land arrivals to Europe in January 2018. Eighty-four per cent of all registered migrants and asylum seekers arrived by sea (7,174) to Greece (1,585), Italy (4,189) and Spain (1,400) and the remaining 16% were arrivals by land to Greece (393), Bulgaria (152) and Spain (782).
According to available data, arrivals at the end of January 2018 are at the scale observed in January 2017 when 8,488 migrants and asylum seekers were reported arriving to Europe. A 16% decrease is observed in therms of land arrivals, from estimated 1,582 reported in January 2017 to 1,327 registered at the end of January 2018. Looking at the country level, Italy, Bulgaria and Spain received less migrants and asylum seekers in 2018 compared to figures recorded in the same period last year, whereas Greek authorities registered app. 450 migrants more than in January 2018.
Migrants and asylum seekers from Eritrea (1,184), Tunisia (611), Pakistan (273), Nigeria (212) and Libya (204) were the top five nationality groups registerd in Italy in 2018. Available breakdown for January 2017, indicates a change in the registered nationalities. Last year, Ivorian nationals comprised the first registered nationality (839), followed by Guinean (796), Nigerian (483), Senegalese (431) and Gambian (359) nationals. A change in origin countries is present in the overall breakdown available for Greece. This year, Iraqi (29%), Syrian (29%), Afghan (13%), Congolese (4%) and Cameroonian (3%) nationals are registered as top five nationalities. Syrian nationals were the first registered nationality in 2017 comprising 27%, however, followed by migrants and asylum seekers originating from Algeria (15%), Congo (10%), Iraq (8%), and Kuwait (6%).
Although to a lesser extend, irregular movements have been reported between transit countries on the Western Balkans route. In total, 765 irregular migrants have been apprehended in January 2018 in Croatia (385), Hungary (56), Kosovo* (3), Montenegro (15), Slovenia (235) and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (71). This represents a 54% increase compared to 498 registered in January 2017.
