Europe — Mixed Migration Flows to Europe, Yearly Overview (2015)

While populations from the Middle East, South East Asia, and Africa have been crossing the Mediterranean to reach Europe in growing numbers since 2011, 2015 marked the sharpest increase of arrivals to Europe and deaths in the Mediterranean. International organizations and EU policy makers recognized the urgent need to identify effective measures to tackle the resulting humanitarian issues, but at the start of the crisis, relatively little was known about migrants arriving to Europe beyond their nationality, sex, and age. Thus, IOM rolled out its Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM) across the affected region. Through DTM’s flow monitoring system, over the course of 2015 IOM identified key locations along the migratory route to collect data through direct observation, consultations with relevant national authorities, and surveys with migrants.

In 2015, 1,046,599 total arrivals to Europe were registered. Out of this total, 34,887 arrivals were by land and 1,011,712 were made by sea.