by Alessandra Cardone
ROME, Dec. 30 (Xinhua) -- Italy has become the top point of arrival for the relentless flow of migrants and asylum-seekers heading to Europe in 2016.
Assessing the situation before the year's end, the Italian Interior Ministry stated 180,375 people reached the country from Jan. 1 to Dec. 28. The fresh data marked a 17.39 percent and 6.54 percent increase compared to the same period of 2015 and 2014 respectively (when arrivals had been about 153,600 and 169,300).
Numbers have kept rising despite the cold season, and are at odds with a general declining trend registered in Europe.
Indeed, some 360,380 arrivals have been overall registered through the Mediterranean routes (including Greece, Italy and Spain) up to Dec. 28, compared to over 1 million in the whole of last year, according to the UN refugee agency UNHCR.
Yet, among southern European countries, Italy only has remained to face a further increase.
Greece, which sustained a huge influx last year, has seen sea arrivals reducing from over 856,700 in 2015 to 173,208 in 2016.
The consistent drop was much due to the closure of the Balkan land routes, and to the return operation provided within the European Union's deal with Turkey in March.
In Spain, some 6,800 arrivals by sea were registered up to Nov. 30, in addition to 1,574 and 3,510 land arrivals to the enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla, the UNHCR stated.
Surprisingly, Italy's major rise in arrivals has been registered in the last part of the year. "While (Italy's) arrival trends in 2016 remained consistent with those of 2015 up until the end of Sept., arrivals since then have generally been higher," the UNHCR confirmed in a report.
October and November proved particularly busy months for the crews involved in rescue missions across the Mediterranean, all of which are coordinated by the Italian coast guard.
Totally 27,384 people were saved in October 2016 against 8,916 in October 2015, and 13,581 in November 2016 against 3,218 in November last year. Then, there were still 7,338 people rescued up to Dec. 28, compared to 9,637 in the whole month in 2015.
The UNHCR said it was "monitoring potential factors contributing to the increase," including a possible drop in prices imposed by smugglers for the dangerous crossing of the Mediterranean.
The Interior Ministry data showed the majority of those who arrived to Italy are from African countries.
They also highlighted a hike in the number of children traveling alone: some 24,929 unaccompanied minors were registered up to Dec. 13, against 12,360 in the whole of 2015, and 13,026 in 2014.
Despite remaining on the frontline of the migration crisis this year, Italy has received limited support from European partners. The EU relocation scheme, which allows asylum-seekers to be transferred legally, and under humanitarian protection, from the country where they have first arrived to another EU country, has proved disappointing.
It was approved in September 2015 with the specific goal of relocating 160,000 people from Italy, Greece, and Hungary in the following two years.
However, the Italian Interior Ministry reported only 2,643 people were relocated up to Dec. 12. Some 204 of them were children. The countries most willing to share the burden were Germany with 455 relocations accepted, the Netherlands with 380, Finland with 359, Switzerland with 340, and Portugal with 271.
Further 899 requests of relocation from Italy were also approved, but are yet to be implemented.
Along the year, former Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi had been repeatedly critical of the lack of consistent help from the EU, and especially from eastern countries refusing to take part in the relocation.
Current Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni reiterated the position, as he attended his first major EU summit in Brussels as the new head of the Italian government in mid-December.
"The EU is slowly including the migration priority in its agenda, but unfortunately problems move much faster than solutions," he said after the summit. "So, I believe there still exists a very strong delay (in the EU's approach)."
The cabinet was also facing rising domestic tensions, with random protests across the country -- and especially in small towns in the north -- by citizens worried the presence of migrants would overwhelm their territories.
The anti-immigration Northern League, and more recently anti-establishment Five Star Movement have attacked the government on the issue.
So far, the distribution of migrants and refugees has been very uneven, with only 2,600 out of 8,000 Italian municipalities accepting to host them, according to latest figures by the Interior Ministry's immigration department.
Globally, the migration crisis is expected to deepen with more people fleeing war-torn countries such as Syria and Libya and crossing the sea to Italy and other EU nations.
Observers in Italy are worried about how to solve the EU-wide migration problem that seems "mission impossible."
