Number of migrants entering Italy via Libya dropped sharply

The number of migrants arriving in Italy from the Mediterranean has dropped sharply, according to the European Union’s border agency.

In September 2017 some 5,600 people arrived in Italy via the central Mediterranean route, Frontex said on Wednesday. The figure has fallen by over two-thirds compared to the same month last year.

“The third quarter of 2017 saw the lowest number of irregular migrants in the Central Mediterranean for the July-September period since 2014,” the agency said.

In total, around 104,800 people are known to have arrived in Italy across the Mediterranean in the first nine months of 2017 – 21% fewer than in the same period in 2016.

The same decrease was seen throughout the entire EU, where Frontex counted a total of 156,000 illegal border crossings between January and September 2017, a drop of 64% year-on-year.