Migrant sea deaths top 3,000 this year, says migration organization
The international Organization for Migration estimates that more than 3,000 people have now died while trying to cross the Mediterranean to Europe this year.
Spokesman Joel Millman of the Geneva-based inter-governmental agency says 3,103 people have died in 2015 during the crossing – more than 100 of which have only been recorded now because of internal “housekeeping” of the statistics in recent days.
IOM says more than 593,000 people have crossed this year – of which 453,000 traveled from Turkey to Greece, which has faced a massive influx of people from Syria.
Ninety percent of the deaths this year were on the high Mediterranean, mainly between Libya and Italy. The IOM says that those arriving in Italy are much more diverse, with large contingents from at least 16 countries.
[AP]
