GENEVA, May 19 (Xinhua) -- Out of the 5,137 migrants and refugees who reached Greece by sea in the first four months of 2017, over half hailed from the middle-eastern countries of Syria and Iraq, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) reported Friday.
According to figures released by the Geneva-based organisation, 1,891 Syrians reached Greek shores while 706 Iraqis undertook the same perilous sea journey from Turkey between January and April this year.
Since January, IOM reported that 37 men, women and children have drowned crossing the short stretch of water separating Turkey and Greek islands.
A further 1,295 individuals have lost their lives crossing the central Mediterranean route linking North Africa with Italy (1,244 deaths) and eastern passages, where 51 people have died.
IOM revealed that as of May 17, 54,715 migrants and refugees have reached Europe by sea, down from almost 190,000 arrivals over the same period in 2016.
