Refugees Daily - Internal Global Press Review

Geneva (dpa) – More than 1 million people have arrived in Europe this year in a bid to escape conflicts and poverty.

The UN refugee agencyUNHCR and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said Tuesday that 972,500 people had entered the continent via the Mediterranean Sea, more than four times as many as last year.

A further 34,000 had travelling to Europe by land from Turkey, they said.

"One in every two of those crossing the Mediterranean this year – half a million people – were Syrians escaping the war in their country," UNHCR and IOM said in a joint statement.

Afghans accounted for 20 per cent and Iraqis for 7 per cent of the sea arrivals.

The vast majority travelled from Turkey to Greece over the Aegean Sea, while crossings from Northern Africa to Italy dropped slightly.

More than 3,600 people died or went missing on the dangerous sea routes, compared to nearly 3,300 last year. People smugglers often use unseaworthy and overcrowded boats.

"But it's not enough to count the number of those arriving," IOM Director General William Lacy Swing said. "We must also act."

He called for open, legal and safe immigration channels that also meet the security concerns of European countries.

Amid fears that terrorists might pose as migrants to reach Europe, UN Hich Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres warned against xenophobia.

"As anti-foreigner sentiments escalate in some quarters, it is important to recognize the positive contributions that refugees and migrants make to the societies in which they live," he said.

The migration organizations said the European Union must expand the reception centres at its borders, to better identify refugees who need protection and economic migrants without a right to asylum who will be repatriated.