Over 141,000 refugees have arrived in Europe via the Mediterranean sea since the beginning of 2016, according to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).
The organisation said in a statement on Tuesday that 9,294 refugees arrived in Italy and 131,847 arrived in Greece via the Mediterranean between 1 January and 7 March.
Sealed borders:
The EU taking U-turns on humanity:
Click to read the EU’s response to the #RefugeeCrisis
According to the statement, the majority of the refugees were Syrians, while others were Iraqis and Afghans.
A total of 444 people died during their trips within the same period in the Mediterranean.
According to the statement, Germany was the preferred destination for refugees where a total of 153,099 applied for asylum within the first two months of the year.
Since 1 January 2016, 6,929 refugees took refuge in Sweden, 5,500 in the Netherlands, 1,620 in Denmark, 1,019 in Finland and 92 in Norway.