U.N.: October flow of migrants across Mediterranean more than all of last year

Jim Michaels | USA TODAY

More than 218,000 migrants crossed the Mediterranean Sea in October — the highest monthly number and more than all of last year, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees announced Monday.

The huge influx despite cooler weather is the most recent sign that the refugee crisis into Europe is deepening, as people flee Syria and other Middle East countries. The U.N. refugee agency estimates that more than 700,000 people have crossed the Mediterranean this year.

The agency estimated about 216,000 people crossed the Mediterranean Sea last year, while some 3,000 crossed Turkey’s land border.

"October's numbers speak to the urgent need in Europe for a sustainable solution to this crisis," said Adrian Edwards, a spokesman for the U.N. refugee agency.

Thousands have died trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea to Greece or Italy in rickety boats, and those who survive face an uncertain future in Europe.

The bulk of the refugees are fleeing Syria, where a civil war has raged for more than four years

Last week, a wooden boat carrying more than 300 migrants from Turkey to the Greek island of Lesbos sank, killing at least 43 people, including 20 children, the Associated Press reported.

Greece’s coast guard said it rescued more than 1,400 people in 39 separate search-and-rescue operations in the eastern Aegean Sea over the weekend, the AP said.

Lesbos Mayor Spyros Galinos told Greece’s Vima FM radio that the island has run out of room to bury migrants killed in shipwrecks during the dangerous crossing, the AP reported. Galinos said he was trying to speed procedures to allow burials in a field next to the main cemetery.

European leaders have argued over how best to handle the influx but recently agreed to set up processing centers to screen migrants in Greece and elsewhere. Germany's government said the centers should begin functioning this month.

Edwards said it is essential to move ahead with the reception centers and a relocation program that European governments agreed to.

"Looking ahead to this winter it's clearly essential that there is meaningful movement forward on these counts," he said.