Over 1,500 migrants die travelling to Europe by sea: IOM

Geneva, Sep 11 (IANS/AKI) A total 1,565 people died on the perilous boat journey from North Africa until September 9 while 73,676 migrants reached Europe, the UN migration agency the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said on Tuesday.

Of the total arrivals, 32,022 reached Spain - where most migrants have landed this year - while 20,430 came ashore in Greece and 20,319 in Italy, the IOM figures indicated.

It was the first time since 2016 that arrivals to Greece overtook those to Italy. A year ago, these were about one-sixth and Spain's were about one-tenth of Italy's, according to IOM.

The number of boat migrants who reached Europe this year dropped sharply.

Almost 1,000 fewer people perished crossing the Mediterranean this year compared with 2,561 during the same period of 2017, the IOM data showed.