HIGHLIGHTS
Between January and June 2018, a total of 58,357 migrants and refugees had reached Europe through different sea and land routes. More than 75 per cent of the overall population crossed the Mediterranean Sea, mainly using the Central Mediterranean route that still leads to Italy. 16,577 new sea arrivals were registered in Italy between January and June 2018. Despite receiving the highest proportion of the sea arrivals reported this year, in terms of overall arrivals (land and sea), Italy was surpassed by both Spain and Greece during the second quarter of the year.
Authorities in Spain registered a total of 17,950 arrivals between January and June 2018, two times more than the 9,401 reported in the same period in 2017. 16 per cent of migrants and refugees arrived in Spain by land, mainly to the two Spanish enclaves in North Africa (Ceuta and Melilla). The remaining 84 per cent (15,076) were sea arrivals to the south of Spain, mainly in Tarifa, Almeria, Motril, Valencia and Málaga. In comparison to the same period in 2017, this represents a significant increase in arrivals to Spain. Between April and June 2018, a total of 11,710 migrants and refugees arrived by sea to Spain, three times more than the 3,369 calculated for the first three months of the year.
At the end of the second quarter of 2018, Hellenic Authorities reported 22,899 new arrivals to Greece, more than twice the 10,676 registered in the same period in 2017. 40 per cent of migrants and refugees who arrived in Greece this year did so through land routes from Turkey, a total of 9,385 individuals. The majority of all land arrivals occurred in the second quarter, a total of 7,240 persons, three times more than the 2,145 reported between January and March 2018. The number of sea arrivals has been relatively stable in both quarters, with an average of 2,252 arrivals a month. The numbers of sea arrivals ranged from the 1,185 reported in February to the 3,303 registered in March 2018.
Arrivals to Italy increased in the second quarter of the year, from 6,296 registered between January and March to 10,281 registered between April and June 2018. In contrast to that, the number of arrivals registered between January and June 2018 represent a significant decrease in comparison to the same period in 2017. Last year, Italian authorities reported 83,752 arrivals at the end of June, five times more than the 16,577 reported this year.
The profile of the migrants who arrived in Spain, Italy and Greece did not change significantly in the first two quarters of 2018. In Greece, migrants from the Syrian Arab Republic, Iraq, Afghanistan and Cameroon made up a total of 93 per cent of the overall arrivals in the first and second quarter of 2018. The available nationality breakdown provided by the Italian authorities based on the nationalities declared by migrants shows that Eritrean, Tunisian, Sudanese, Nigerian and Ivorian nationals were the top five nationalities reported over the first two quarters of 2018.
DTM flow monitoring data for Spain, collected from the respective authorities, shows that migrants from Sub-Saharan Africa, Morocco, Guinea Conakry, Mali and Côte d’Ivoire were the main nationality groups registered so far this year. However, in the second quarter of the year, the presence of nationals from Sub-Saharan Africa increased by 25 percentage points, from only 2 per cent reported at the end of March to 27 per cent registered at the end of June 2018.
Increased sea and land arrivals to Greece, and the prolonged stay of migrants in the reception centres in transit countries, may have triggered an increase in secondary movement through the Western Balkan countries, specifically through Albania, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina where authorities registered a total of 11,267 irregular migrants. 70 per cent of these migrants were registered in Bosnia and Herzegovina, a total of 8,034. Another 2,000 were registered by the authorities in Montenegro and 1,233 in Albania Authorities in Albania also registered an additional 590 individuals who attempted to exit the country towards Montenegro.
