(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) BRUSSELS, Nov 16 (KUNA) -- Nearly 27,500 migrants reached the Italian shores in October, the highest monthly number ever recorded in the Central Mediterranean and more than twice as many as in the previous month, the EU's border agency, Frontex, reported Wednesday.
A key reason for the unprecedented number was improved weather that followed relatively poor weather conditions in September. There were 127 bodies recovered in the Central Mediterranean region in October and likely many more drowned, the statement noted.
Nigerians and Eritreans accounted for the largest number of the rescued migrants last month.
So far this year, nearly 159,500 migrants arrived in Italy, 13% more than a year ago.
Meanwhile, the number of migrants arriving on the Greek islands in the Eastern Aegean continued to amount to just a fraction of the figures from a year ago. Some 3, 100 people were detected in October. This brought the figure for the first 10 months of this year to 170 000, although most of the arrivals took place between January and March.
Syrians, Iraqis and Afghans were the three main nationalities on this route in October.
A similar drop was visible in the Western Balkans, where the number of detections of illegal border-crossings in October stood at 1,700, less than 1% of the figure from the same month a year ago. Nationals from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq continued to account for a large majority of the migrants on this route. (end) nk.mys
Legal Disclaimer:
MENAFN provides the information “as is” without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the provider above.