The International Organisation for Migration, IOM, has announced that 5,483 migrants and refugees entered Europe by sea in 2017 up to 29th January, compared with 67,375 in the first 29 days of January, 2016.

IOM’s Missing Migrants Project reported an estimated 253 deaths at sea on various routes in 2017, compared with 367 in the first 29 days of 2016.

A statement on the IOM website said, "This figure is almost a reverse of the pattern a year ago, when 90 deaths occurred on the Central Mediterranean route connecting North Africa to Italy and only five deaths occurring off Spain."

In 2016 at this time, 272 deaths were reported on the Eastern route between Turkey and Greece. So far this year it is the Central Mediterranean route, with 227 deaths, and Spain, with 25, that account for almost all the fatalities at sea. There has been just one death reported off Greece earlier this month.

On Monday, IOM field staff in Trapani, Italy, recorded the deaths of two brothers, aged five and eight, from the Cote d’Ivoire, who died at sea in a dinghy last weekend en-route to Italy.

Commenting on the announcement, Federico Soda, Director of the IOM Coordination Office for the Mediterranean in Rome, said, "Crossing the Mediterranean is always dangerous for migrants, but at this time of year the sea conditions and the cold weather can be lethal, particularly for small children."