Europe — Mixed Migration Flows to Europe Monthly Overview (September 2019)

A total of 85,841 migrants and refugees arrived in Europe through different land and sea routes between January and September 2019, 17 per cent less than the same period of 2018 when 103,523 sea and land arrivals were reported, 54 per cent less than the 186,788 arrivals registered in this period of 2017 and 78 per cent less than the 390,456 registered during this period in 2016.
There were 52,653 registered arrivals via the Eastern Mediterranean route (61% of the total) in Cyprus, Bulgaria and Greece between January and September 2019. Another 22,892 arrivals were registered via the Western Mediterranean route (WMR) (27%) leading to Spain in the same period, and 10,386 were registered crossing the Central Mediterranean route (12%), arriving by sea to Italy and Malta. This indicates that the Eastern Mediterranean route continues to surpass both the Western and Central Mediterranean routes as the main route taken by migrants and refugees travelling to Europe, as it has done since February 2019.