The Geneva-based intergovernmental organization says the million mark was crossed Monday

Associated Press – DECEMBER 22, 2015 2 Comments

Migrant Arrivals Into Europe Tops 1 Million in 2015
 More than 1 million migrants and refugees have crossed into Europe this year, the International Organization for Migration said Tuesday, passing a symbolic milestone amid the fallout of war, poverty and persecution in Africa and the Middle East.
With just days left in 2015, the Geneva-based intergovernmental organization says the million mark was crossed Monday, marking more than a four-fold increase from last year.

IOM says more than 820,000 crossed into Greece from Turkey, including more than 455,000 from Syria and over 186,000 from Afghanistan. Nearly 3,700 others died trying to cross the Mediterranean.

The 162-country intergovernmental agency says the arrival of more than 4,100 people into Greece on Monday put the annual total over 1 million. The figure includes more than 34,000 arrivals by land from Turkey into neighboring Greece and Bulgaria, or only about 3.5 percent of the total this year.

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