According to revised statistics from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the number of refugees and migrants arriving in Greece by sea has more than quadrupled in 2023 compared to the same time in 2022.
According to the figures, a total of 10,790 refugees and migrants landed in Greece via marine routes between January 1 and August 13. Arrivals by sea were less than half that number in 2022, at 5,216. The Palestinian territories received the most arrivals (1,394), followed by Afghanistan (717), Somalia (636), Syria (561) and Eritrea (536).
In 2022, 943 Palestinians, 832 Afghans, 805 Somalis, and 508 Syrians were registered. At the same time, 3,538 refugees and migrants have arrived via land routes in the first eight months of 2023.
The total number of arrivals in 2022 was 6,022. However, the number of refugees and migrants who died crossing the border in 2023 is extremely large. According to UNHCR figures, the number of dead and missing people on the Eastern Mediterranean maritime routes reached 693 as of August 15, compared to 343 for the entire year of 2022.
These findings have sparked legitimate alarm that the number of dead and missing may even outnumber the terrible record of 793 in 2015, a year with over a million arrivals.