One Million Migrants Reach Europe By Sea

The International Organization for Migration has announced that over one million migrants have entered Europe in 2015. Almost all came by sea, and four out of five arrived in Greece. The IOM said that the migration flow was the largest since World War II.

Migrant fatalities for the region totaled to about 3,700, or about one half of one percent of the total number of arrivals. As only 5,100 migration deaths were recorded worldwide, the Mediterranean refugee routes are easily the world's most fatal.

A recent analysis by Nation Newsplex finds that refugees from Sub-Saharan Africa make up a disproportionate share of the fatalities. Of African nations, only Somalia counts among the top ten refugee countries of origin, yet Africans make up almost half of migrant deaths – suggesting that they are taking on greater risks in their attempts to migrate.

The fatalities in the Mediterranean could have been significantly higher if not for the intervention of the EU's Operation Sophia, a Europe-wide consortium of navies and coast guard agencies working together to find and save migrants on unseaworthy vessels.

The German Navy announced Saturday that its two participating ships alone had rescued over 10,000 migrants in the course of the year. This past week's actions account for a significant fraction of the total: 300 were picked up last Wednesday and Thursday off the coast of Libya by the vessel Berlin, followed by 500 more on Friday.

Not all are so lucky, and recent incidents highlight the importance of the search and rescue / interdiction effort, especially as rough winter weather sets in. Last Thursday, 18 refugees drowned following the capsize of an overloaded wooden boat off the coast of Turkey. The Turkish Coast Guard rescued 21 and is still searching for two more missing. If Turkish forces had not intervened, it is likely that fatalities in this single incident would have doubled.