Italy remains on frontline of Europe's migration crisis in 2016

As the year's end approaches, the latest data on Europe's refugee crisis showed the overall inflow of people fleeing war and poverty has sensibly dropped, compared to 2015.


Yet, Italy has remained on the frontline of the emergency, with numbers soaring in latest months despite the winter and worsening conditions in the sea that separates Europe from Africa's coasts.

Some 357,800 arrivals have been so far registered through the Mediterranean routes (including Greece, Italy, and Spain), compared to over 1 million in the whole last year, according to the UN refugee agency UNHCR.

In Italy, however, some 179,081 people have arrived between Jan. 1 and Dec. 11, against a total of 153,842 in 2015.
   [china.org.cn/Xinhua]
18/12/16