The first weeks of January have seen a 64 percent drop in the number of migrants reaching Italy, compared with the same period in 2017.
Around 841 migrants landed on the coast of Italy in the first two weeks of January. This is 64 percent less than the same period in 2017, when there were 2,355 arrivals.
According to figures from the Italian interior ministry, there has been a downwards trend since July 2017 in the number of people crossing the Mediterranean from Libya: 544, compared with 2,188 last year.
160 deaths in a week, says UNHCR
UNHCR has noted that three incidents in the Mediterranean in the second week of January resulted the deaths of around 160 asylum seekers. The UN agency for refugees once again called for countries to offer more resettlement places and "other safe alternatives for refugee protection."
Last September, the UNHCR launched an appeal to for 40,000 places to be made available for resettling refugees from 15 countries along the Mediterranean route. The UN refugee agency has so far been guaranteed about 13,000 places for 2018 and 2019. Most of these are part of global resettlement programs that had previously been established. Few countries have offered additional places.