GENEVA, 11 Nov. - (ANA) - Arrivals of migrants and refugees to Europe by sea in 2015 approached 800,000 through the first week of November, a figure that amounts to nearly four times the total for all of 2014.

IOM reports the total number of fatalities on these routes now total 3,455 – although we caution that we may be seeing some discrepancies in Greece and Spain where migrants previously counted as “missing” now are confirmed fatalities, a factor which should not change the overall count, but may have been double-counted by our research team.

We can report confidently that, according to Hellenic Police, an estimated 17,600 migrants and refugees crossed into Greece from Friday (6/11) to Sunday (8/11). Some 6,803 arrived on Friday, 6,340 on Saturday and 4,528 on Sunday. Weather conditions were fine and migrants and refugees continued to board boats.

However the death toll continued to rise, with the Greek coast guard recovering eight bodies off Lesbos and Agathonisi during the weekend. They included a two- to three-year-old boy. IOM is reporting the recovery of the remains of a dozen or so migrants off Greece since last Thursday night, however staffers on the islands caution that many of these so-called “new” fatalities are simply confirmations of the dozens who were declared “missing” in a series of shipwrecks over the past week.

The number of migrants and refugees crossing from Greece to the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) also reached 26,840 between 6.00 am Monday November 2 and 6.00 am Monday November 9.

The European Union is pressing some northern African nations to sign lopsided deals that would send thousands of migrants back without sufficient protection, African diplomats and migration experts are warning at this week’s migration summit in Malta.

Sputnik reported that 10,201 refugees applied for asylum in Sweden last week – the highest number ever in a single week – according to the Swedish Migration Agency. - (ANA)

AB/ANA/ 11 November 2015 - - -