Europe — Mixed Migration Flows to Europe Monthly Overview (February 2020)

A total of 6,732 migrants and refugees arrived in Europe through different land and sea routes in February 2020, which is 18 per cent less than the 8,223 registered in the previous month (January 2020), 58 per cent more than the 4,268 sea and land arrivals registered in February last year, 50 per cent more than the 4,487 arrivals registered in February 2018, and 43 per cent less than the 11,808 reported in February 2017.
Arrivals registered in Europe in the first two months of 2020 were 14,955, which is 20 per cent more than arrivals registered in the same period last year (12,444) and 13 per cent more than arrivals in the first two months of 2018 (13,167).
There were 2,950 registered arrivals in Bulgaria and Greece through the Eastern Mediterranean route (44% of total registered arrivals in Europe) in February 2020. Another 2,175 arrivals were registered on the Western Mediterranean route (32%) leading to Spain, and 1,647 were registered on the Central Mediterranean route (24%), arriving by sea to Italy and Malta in the same period. Hence, 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 by sea and land, as it has done each month since February 2019. In February 2019, the Eastern Mediterranean route was recorded as the most active with 2,842 arrivals (67% of the total), followed by the Western Mediterranean route with 1,366 registered arrivals (32%) and the Central Mediterranean route with 60 registered arrivals (1%). In February 2018, 42 per cent of all arrivals in Europe were registered on the Eastern Mediterranean route (1,904), while arrivals on the Western Mediterranean route were 1,518 (34%)
and on Central Mediterranean 1,065 (24%).