SUMMARY
A total of 40,537 migrants and refugees were registered arriving in Europe at the end of the second quarter of 2019, 31 per cent less than the 59,446 registered in the same period of 2018. More than a half (56%) of all arrivals in 2019 so far were recorded during the second quarter of the year, a total of 22,648 which is 27 per cent increase compared to the 17,889 registered in the first quarter of the year.
The Eastern Mediterranean route is the main entry route in 2019 so far (a total of 23,219 arrivals). On a country level, Greece and Spain have received 78 per cent of the overall newly arrived migrants to Europe this year. Greece is the leading country in the number of newly registered migrants and refugees in the first two quarters of the year. Unlike Spain, where arrivals in the second quarter decreased by 11 per cent when compared to the first quarter of the year, arrivals to Greece increased by 26 per cent between the two periods. Arrivals to Italy decreased by 78 per cent from 10,281 reported in the Q2 in 2018 to 2,255 registered in the same period this year (April – June 2019).