UN refugee agency says 2015 migrant arrivals by sea in Europe now top 1 million

BERLIN – The U.N. refugee agency said Wednesday that the number of migrants who've arrived in Europe by sea this year now tops 1 million.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees' announcement came only a week after the International Organization for Migration said the total number of people arriving in Europe this year had topped a million — including 34,215 who arrived across land borders.

UNHCR said 1,000,573 people have now arrived by boat during the year — 844,176 of them landing in Greece and 152,700 in Italy. Spain reported 3,592 arrivals and Malta 105.

The count is based on police and coast guard data and estimates stemming from refugee registration in Greece; data and estimates from government, police and UNHCR in Italy; and police and government data from Spain and Malta. Of those who arrived, 49 percent came from Syria and 21 percent from Afghanistan.

Another 3,735 people were counted as dead or missing, UNHCR said.

Germany has received more migrants than any other European Union nation — including, in the early part of 2015, large numbers from southeastern European nations such as Albania, Kosovo and Serbia.

Bavaria's social affairs minister, Emilia Mueller, said Wednesday that nearly 1.1 million migrants have arrived in Germany this year, most of them via Bavaria, news agency dpa reported. She underscored the Bavarian state government's insistence that "we now need more urgently than ever an effective limitation of immigration."