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UNHCR Europe Monthly Report, December 2018

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Spain
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TRENDS AND KEY FIGURES

In 2018, the number of refugees and migrants arriving in Europe via the three Mediterranean routes dropped by 24%. This was largely due to a further reduction in people arriving via the Central Mediterranean route, although this was partially offset by an increase in arrivals to Spain via the Western Mediterranean route.

Of particular significance in 2018 were changing practices regarding rescue at sea in the central Mediterranean in response to boats departing from Libya. While in recent years, persons rescued by European State vessels, NGOs or merchant vessels off the coast of Libya were disembarked in Italy, in June Italy announced an end to this. This, alongside increased interventions by the Libyan Coast Guard with European support in the newly-established Libyan Search and Rescue Region, resulted in a situation in which the majority of people departing from Libya were disembarked in Libya, despite UNHCR’s advisory against returns. As a consequence, boats tried traveling further from the Libyan coast bringing people to Italy and Malta’s Search and Rescue Regions or at times directly to Italy and Malta. On numerous occasions in the latter half of the year, refugees and migrants rescued by NGOs off the Libyan coast had to remain at sea for several days while waiting for a safe port for disembarkation to be allocated. As of the start of 2019, no consistent and predictable system of response to rescues in the central Mediterranean has yet been established.

GREECE: in 2018, the number of people arriving by sea to Greece only increased by 9%, while arrivals by land almost tripled. Those arriving by sea were primarily from Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq.

As in 2017, children comprised a sizeable proportion of arrivals by sea (37%) and 16% of these children were unaccompanied or separated. In December, more than 2,900 made the journey by sea to Greece despite the winter conditions, an increase from the 2,100 that had arrived in November. More than 120 people are believed to have died at sea while trying to cross to Greece in 2018, while some 73 people are reported to have died during attempts to cross the Turkey-Greece land border. Of those who died on the land route, 27 people were believed to have drowned in the Evros River and a further 29 people killed in vehicle accidents along the road towards Thessaloniki.

ITALY: the number of arrivals by sea dropped by 80% from almost 119,400 to 23,400. Although arrivals from Libya comprised 70% of those reaching Italy by sea in the first half of 2018, the limited number of arrivals from Libya in the latter half of the year (1,600) saw the overall proportion drop to 56%. Following Italy’s announcement in June impacting on disembarkations in Italy of people rescued off the Libyan coast, in the latter half of the year just under 200 people were disembarked in Italy after rescue off the Libyan coast. A further 1,400 people who departed from Libya either reached Italy directly or were rescued in Italy or Malta’s Search and Rescue Regions after passing beyond the Libyan Search and Rescue Region and were disembarked in Italy. Some 1,400 that departed Libya in 2018 arrived in Malta, either as a result of disembarkations following rescue off the Libyan coast or after rescue by Maltese authorities in Malta’s Search and Rescue Region. More than 15,200 people were disembarked in Libya in 2018. In the latter half of the year, those disembarked in Libya amounted to some 85% of those rescued or intercepted off the Libyan coast and included some who had been rescued by merchant vessels. Some 1,311 people are believed to have died while trying to cross the central Mediterranean Sea in 2018. While this represents a 54% decrease in the number of deaths at sea, it also reflects a significant increase in the rate of deaths in relation to arrivals with one death for every 14 arrivals in Europe from Libya in 2018 compared to one death for every 38 arrivals in 2017.

SPAIN: some 65,400 refugees and migrants arrived by land and sea, an increase of 131% compared to 2017. While the number of people arriving by land only increased by 10%, the largest increase was amongst those crossing the sea. The largest groups arriving in Spain were from Morocco, Guinea and Mali. The increase in Malians was particularly notable with some 10,000 people arriving in 2018 compared to just over 500 in 2017. In December, some 5,600 people arrived in Spain compared to 2,400 the previous December. Some 784 people are believed to have died while trying to cross the sea to Spain in 2018, almost four times as many as in 2017 when 202 people were believed to have died.

WESTERN BALKANS: a sizeable increase in the number of refugees and migrants arriving was noted in Bosnia and Herzegovina with some 24,100 arrivals. This appeared to be primarily due to shifting routes within the region as more people also travelled onwards from Greece via Albania and Montenegro to other EU Member States while others who had reached Serbia decided to try to move onwards also via Bosnia and Herzegovina.