However, the total number is significantly lower than in 2015.
Milan:
More than 150,000 are expected this year in Mediterranean countries on major migrant routes in Europe as food shortages caused by the Ukraine conflict threaten a new migration wave from Africa and the Middle East.
“This year the frontline member states are expected, as we have discussed between us, to deliver more than 150,000 migrants,” Cyprus Interior Minister Nikos Norris said after meeting with fellow ministers of the so-called MED5 group in Venice on Saturday. To get.”
According to the UN refugee agency, some 36,400 asylum seekers and migrants have landed in Italy, Spain, Greece, Cyprus and Malta this year, after 123,318 arrivals in 2021.
However, the total number is significantly lower than in 2015, when more than 1 million migrants arrived in five countries in Africa and the Middle East to escape poverty and conflict.
UN crisis coordinator Amin Awad said on Friday that 1.4 billion people could be affected by a shortage of wheat and other grains.
Russia and Ukraine account for about a third of the global wheat supply, while Russia is also a major fertilizer exporter and Ukraine is a major supplier of corn and sunflower oil.
“If wheat remains blocked in Black Sea ports, we should expect more (migrant) flows,” Italian Interior Minister Luciana Lamorges told SkyTG24 on Friday. “We are concerned, as are all frontline countries.”
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