More refugees arrived in Europe by boat during the first six weeks of 2016 than during the first four months of last year, the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) announced on Friday.

There were more than 80,000 refugees and migrants who arrived in Europe by boat during the first six weeks of 2016, according to the agency. More than one million refugees traveled to Europe in 2015, but not until July did they begin arriving at the rate of more than 2,000 people per day.

“The majority of those arriving in January 2016, nearly 58 per cent, were women and children; one in three people arriving to Greece were children as compared to just 1 in 10 in September 2015,” UNHCR’s spokeswoman Melissa Fleming told reporters.

The news comes as many European countries struggle to handle the influx of migrants from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq, with some countries imposing more restrictive immigration policies, causing activists to call for a comprehensive European response.

“Other countries are contemplating similar or even more restrictive legislation at a time when European countries need to improve the legal and secure ways to access family reunion and thus combat smuggling,” Fleming said.

Get The Brief. Sign up to receive the top stories you need to know right now. Please enter a valid email address. Sign Up Now Check the box if you do not wish to receive promotional offers via email from TIME. You can unsubscribe at any time. By signing up you are agreeing to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Thank you! For your security, we've sent a confirmation email to the address you entered. Click the link to confirm your subscription and begin receiving our newsletters. If you don't get the confirmation within 10 minutes, please check your spam folder.

Write to Katie Reilly at Katie.Reilly@time.com.