521 migrants dead in Med in 2017 - IOM (3)

(ANSA) - Geneva, March 7 - Some 521 migrants died or disappeared in the Mediterranean from the start of the year up to March 5, 2017, compared to 471 in the same period last year, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said Tuesday.
    Some 19,348 migrants and refugees have arrived by sea in Europe, more than 80% of them in Italy (15,760) and the rest in Spain (1,000) and Greece (2,624). In the first 65 days of 2016, the IOM said, the figures were much higher with 138,524 arrivals, 129,423 of them in Greece. The great majority of the deaths from January 1 to March 1 were on the central Mediterranean route from North Africa to Italy, a total of 477, the IOM said.
    Rome recently signed a deal with Libya to try to stem the tide of arrivals and deaths on the central Mediterranean route.