A total of 1,513 migrants and refugees entered Europe by sea from August 12 through August 17, according to the latest figures released by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) on Friday.

The new arrivals take this year’s total to 266,026 as of August 17, lower than the 354,618 arrivals recorded through the first eight months of last year.

While the overall number of arrivals has declined – especially to Greece – the fatalities in the Mediterranean have already surpassed the total for the same period of 2015, the IOM said in a statement.

A total of 3,156 migrants and refugees have died since the start of 2016 through August 18. This  compared with 2,333 fatalities recorded between 1 January and 18 August, 2015.

Bulgaria reported on 13 August that a total of 1,289 migrants have arrived by land from Turkey since 1 August 2016, the IOM said.

By comparison, 1,252 migrants arrived in Greece during the same period, while Italy has received 7,259 migrants since 1 August.

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