Onus on EU to formulate strategy as conflict in Syria and forced conscription in Eritrea lead to arrival of 170,000 migrants on Italian shores in 2014

The number of migrants landing on Italian shores quadrupled last year, as more than 170,000 people from the Middle East and Africa fled humanitarian crises, piling pressure on the EU to form a long-term migration strategy.

Syrians fleeing civil war and Eritreans escaping forced conscription comprised nearly half of all Italian boat arrivals in 2014, according to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM). Refugees from Mali, Nigeria and Gambia were also common. Many migrants brave a perilous journey across the Mediterranean to Italy before travelling overland to other European countries.

Last year, a total of 170,100 refugees arrived in Italy by boat, the IOM said. This marked a rise of nearly 300% from 2013, when Italian authorities recorded 42,925 arrivals.

“Many of these people are fleeing war, persecution and totalitarian regimes,” said Federico Soda, the IOM’s head of Italian operations.

Refugees used to attempt crossings only in warmer months, but a growing desperation to gain asylum in Europe has created a year-round smuggling business, the IOM said. As a result, more ill-equipped boats are journeying across the Mediterranean, leading to a sharp rise in migrant deaths. More than 3,200 fatalities were recorded last year; in 2013, the total was 700.

“These figures suggest that the flows are linked to the deteriorating multiple and complex humanitarian crises near Europe’s external borders, including the war in Syria and the unrest caused by the political instability in Libya,” Soda said.

The sharp rise in Syrian and Eritrean refugees journeying to Europe is a major factor in rising migration flows. Last year, more than 11,000 Syrians landed in Italy, while this year more than 40,000 made the crossing. Nearly 35,000 Eritreans came to Italy in 2014, up from just less than 10,000 in 2013.

The hazardous nature of the journey across the Mediterranean faced by many migrants was highlighted in 2013, when a boat carrying mostly Eritreans sank near Lampedusa, off the coast of Italy, killing nearly 300. For Eritreans, many of whom have fallen victim to torture and trafficking in Sudan and Egypt over the past 10 years, travelling overland has often proved equally unsafe.



Syrian migrants have started paying “unscrupulous smugglers” up to $6,000 (£3,943) to be smuggled on Turkish cargo ships destined for southern Italy, the IOM said.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Some of the 700 migrants aboard the Moldovan-flagged ship Blue Sky M before their arrival in Gallipoli, south-east Italy in December. Photograph: Courtesy of Syrian migrant/AFP/Getty Images

Operation Mare Nostrum, run by Italy’s navy, saved about 85,000 lives last year, according to the IOM. But its high cost has raised concerns that it may be discontinued unless the EU agrees to contribute funding.

“It is urgent to respond collectively to these migratory flows. Migration can only be managed by the EU as a whole: and its scale and complexity necessitates cooperation and collective action,” said Soda.

In November last year the EU’s border agency, Frontex, launched its Triton operation, which monitors migration using two aircraft, three ships and seven teams of officers for “debriefing/intelligence gathering and screening/identification purposes”. The operation has €2.9m a month in funding, but this expires in 2015.

Triton has less funding and a more limited geographic scope than Mare Nostrum, according to Judith Sunderland, Human Rights Watch’s senior western Europe researcher. “It took a long for the EU to even take up the migration issue … their primary focus is surveilling maritime borders, but of course they are involved in rescue operations,” said Sunderland.

Sofa said: “This is not a crisis of an excess of migrants reaching Europe and overburdening the continent – an area with a population of about 500 million people. It is an emergency in the sense that more migrants now need protection, aid and safe migration channels.”

• This article was amended on 19 January to correct the number of people killed in the October 2013 Lampedusa boat sinking.