Last month, more than 218,000
migrants reached Europe by sea according to the United Nations – about the same
as the number for the whole of 2014. More than 10,000 arrived in Greece alone
on a single day. So far this year, nearly 3,500 are estimated to have died trying to get to
Europe.
The vast majority have come via
Turkey to Greece. This has replaced the route to Italy via Libya which used to
be more popular. The highest number come from Syria – about 53 per cent, with
Afghanistan next – 18 per cent.
The United Nations has been heavily
critical of Europe’s response, but the organisation’s own predictions for the
number of migrants expected have been gross underestimates. It forecast 700,000 for the whole year, but at the end of October with two months still to
go, that figure had already been exceeded by 44,000.
Normally the numbers fall during
the winter months, but that may not happen this year as the people traffickers
seem to be offering bad weather discounts. The fact that some of the Islamic
fanatics who carried out the mass murders in Paris apparently slipped into Europe as ‘refugees’
has heightened alarm.
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