(Transcript from SBS World News Radio)
The flood of refugees and migrants across the Mediterranean Sea into southern Europe has just passed a startling landmark.
The United Nations refugee agency says more than 100,000 have now arrived in Europe this year, and it's only June.
Ron Sutton reports.
(Click on the audio tab above to hear the full report)
The Greek island of Lesvos perhaps tells the story of the dramatic refugee and migrant flight across the Mediterranean as pointedly as anywhere.
In January this year, 737 people arrived at the island on boats, fleeing there from the Middle East and North Africa.
In February, it climbed to just over a thousand.
Now, as the weather warms, that number has gone from more than three thousand in March to almost five thousand in April and, in May, more than seven thousand.
The UNHCR has revealed those figures in announcing this year's refugee and migrant arrivals in Europe across the Mediterranean have just passed 100,000.
The United Nations refugee agency's spokesman, Adrian Edwards, says record numbers are risking their lives.
"Over the past weekend, this number has included around about 6,000 people who were disembarked in southern Italy following a major rescue operation that was coordinated by the Italian coastguard and joined by navy ships deployed by Frontex and from Italy, Germany, Britain, Ireland, Spain and MOAS. The migrants and refugees rescued have mostly been sub-Saharan Africans and include children and pregnant women."
Frontex is the European Union agency coordinating border protection, and MOAS is the Malta-based Migrant Offshore Aid Station that helps migrants in distress.
UNHCR figures show 103,000 refugees and migrants have reached Europe this year, all but about 1,000 arriving in Italy and Greece.
Spain has received more than 900 and Malta almost a hundred.
An estimated 1,800 people have drowned while trying to cross the Mediterranean.
One 17-year-old girl from Eritrea, upon reaching Italian shores, told Reuters, she and the others fleeing by boat know the risks.
"We know it's a 50 per cent chance of survival, so, if we make it, it's good for us and for our family. But, sometimes, we don't (make it). So, we just come to Libya, and, in Italy, we don't give fingerprints, we just run away from the car, or when they are giving us food to go to other countries, to get help -- and to help our families most."
Libya has become a popular starting point for many of the boat journeys, with people traffickers exploiting the country's power vacuum and increasing lawlessness.
The young Eritrean woman explains the journey from her homeland.
"We came to Libya to cross to Italy. The reason is, our country is really bad. We don't have electricity, we have no human rights. So the only way to go to Italy is through Libya. We go to Sudan illegally. We have no rights to do anything (there). The United Nations doesn't help us. So we come to Libya through the Sahara, and then we cross the sea."
The UNHCR says around 600 people a day are arriving in Greece now, half of them on the island of Lesvos.
They are coming mainly from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq.
Adrian Edwards, the UNHCR spokesman, says he is especially concerned at the numbers turning up in Greece.
After receiving 34,000 refugees and migrants during all of 2014, Greece has already received more than 48,000 so far this year.
There has been a sharp rise recently in the number of migrants trying to reach the Greek islands from the Turkish coast, mirroring what is happening between Africa and Italy.
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