The number of migrants to have arrived in Spain via sea routes so far this year has already gone beyond the total number of people who arrived by the same means over the whole of last year, according to figures released Tuesday by the United Nation's migration agency.
       
Between January 1 and July 29, some 22,858 migrants reached Spain, which was 750 people more than the total number of arrivals in 2017 and makes it the main arrival-by-sea country in the Mediterranean, according to the International Organization for Migration.
       
"This is approximately 16,345 more migrants than arrived in Spain in the same period in 2017," the IOM said in a statement.
       
Elsewhere, some 18,392 migrants had arrived to Italy, 80.6 percent less than in the same period of the previous year, and 15,970 arrived to Greece. 
       
A total of 57,571 people were estimated to have arrived to European countries in the Mediterranean via sea routes so far in 2018, which was down from the 112,375 arrivals during the same period of 2017.
       
The IOM said 2,409 people had died in their efforts to cross the Mediterranean in hopes of reaching Europe.