Med crossings 'deadlier than ever': UN

Even as the number of migrants and refugees crossing the Mediterranean to Europe has fallen sharply, the likelihood of dying during the dangerous voyage has risen significantly, the UN said yesterday.

Between January and July, more than 58,000 asylum seekers and migrants reached Europe's shores after crossing the Mediterranean Sea -- 41 percent fewer than during the same period in 2017, the UN refugee agency said.

The number of people taking the particularly dangerous central Mediterranean route to Italy fell to just 18,500, down from over 95,000 during the first seven months of last year, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said in a fresh report.

But the agency warned that Mediterranean crossings were now "deadlier than ever", with the rate of deaths at sea rising sharply.

During the first seven months of the year, nearly 1,600 people perished trying to make the treacherous journey.

Around 1,200 of those deaths occurred along the central Mediterranean route -- around half the number seen last year when there were five times as many arrivals in Italy.

That means that one person died for every 18 who attempted to make the journey along that route, compared with one in 42 who crossed in 2017.