Story highlights
IOM: 48,000 people arrived in Greece in the last week
Rate of migration into Greece last week: 9,600 per day
18 people have drowned in last five days
The tide of people seeking safety in Europe shows no sign of abating just yet. An advocacy group said Friday that it had just recorded the highest influx of migrants to Greece yet in 2015.
“Despite deteriorating weather conditions, approximately 48,000 refugees and migrants crossed from Turkey to the Greek islands – or about 9,600 migrants and refugees in each of the past five days,” the London-based International Organization for Migration said in a statement.
As troubles this year have roiled the Middle East and North Africa, a wave of humanity – families fleeing death, devastation and poverty – has rolled across European borders, by land and by sea, flummoxing European policy-makers and swamping the ability of authorities to care for them.
Dangerous crossing
The greatest proportion of refugees comes from Syria, where a brutal civil war over the last four and a half years has killed perhaps a quarter of a million people, reduced once-proud cities to rubble, and prompted more than 4 million people to flee.
But the region has other trouble spots, as well, including Eritrea, Libya, Gambia and Nigeria.
Since Monday, the IOM said, 18 people are believed to have drowned trying to reach Europe since Monday, in two incidents.
