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Mixed Migration Flows in the Mediterranean: Compilation of available data and information (March 2018)

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HIGHLIGHTS

DTM flow monitoring data compiled from national authorities and IOM offices show that the number of arrivals through Mediterranean routes between January and March 2018 is half the number of arrivals in the same period in 2017. In the first quarter of 2018 a total of 1,956 migrants and asylum seekers arrived in Europe using different land and sea routes, in comparison to 34,531 registered in the first quarter of 2017. As previously reported, the decrease is mainly due to the drop in arrivals in Italy.

This year, authorities in Italy registered 6,29 6 new arrivals, almost four times less than the 24,292 registered in the same period in 2017. Similarly, the decrease is also noted in registered arrivals in Bulgaria (714 in 2017 and 286 in 2018), Spain (5,204 versus 4,984) and Cyprus (250 versus 47). In contrast to that, there was an increase of 67 per cent in registered sea and land arrivals to Greece from 4,407 in the first quarter of 2017 to 7,343 registered in the first quarter of 2018. The increase in the number of land arrivals is especially significant as it reached a total of 2,145 at the end of March 2018, which is the highest figure reported in the past four years. The majority (62%) of migrants who were registered crossing to Greece by land from Turkey were registered during this reporting period - a total of 1,327, which is three times greater than the 425 land arrivals reported in February and the 393 registered in January 2018.

Available data on the nationalities of the migrants and refugees who arrived in Italy and Greece, two main entry points in the Mediterranean, indicate a change in the nationality structure of the registered population between the first quarters of 2017 and 2018. Looking at the top five registered nationality groups in Greece reveals that an estimated third of the migrants and refugees were Syrian nationals in both 2017 (36%) and 2018 (37%).