30 December 2015•Update: 05 January 2016
GENEVA
More than one million refugees arrived in Europe by sea this year, the UN refugee agency said Wednesday.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees said more than 80 percent of the 1,000,573 arrivals entered via Greece with most landing on Lesbos, a Greek island off the Turkish coast.
More than 844,000 crossed into Greece from Turkey while the majority of others crossed from Libya to Italy in the greatest movement of people the continent has seen since World War II.
The figure is a vast increase on 2014, when around 216,000 arrived by sea -- more than three times the number that arrived in 2013.
The figure for those dead or missing at sea stands at 3,735 for the year.
In a statement released on Dec. 22, the International Organization for Migration said 972,500 had entered Europe by sea, with a further 34,000 crossing by land from Turkey to Bulgaria or Greece.
Nearly half the sea entrants were from Syria with 21 percent coming from Afghanistan, the UN agency said.
October saw the greatest numbers enter, with more than 221,000 arriving by sea.
“Increasing numbers of refugees and migrants take their chances aboard unseaworthy boats and dinghies in a desperate bid to reach Europe,” the agency said on its website.
“The vast majority of those attempting this dangerous crossing are in need of international protection, fleeing war, violence and persecution in their country of origin.”
