Italy bore the brunt of new arrivals of refugees and migrants after the implementation in March of an agreement between the European Union and Turkey to curb the flow of migrants sailing to Greece. A record 5,000 migrants are believed to have drowned in the Mediterranean Sea this year, compared with 3,800 who perished at sea during all of 2015.
Refugees walk through a frozen field after crossing the border from Macedonia, near the village of Miratovac, Serbia, on 18 January 2016Marko Djurica/ Reuters
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A man stands next to the body of a child washed up on a beach in Canakkale's Bademli district, after at least 33 people drowned when their boat sank in the Aegean Sea while trying to cross from Turkey to Greece on 30 January 2016Ozan Kose/AFPA Palestinian girl dressed in a traditional outfit walks in a field near her house in the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, on 7 February 2016Mohammed Abed/AFPA woman looks through a train window as migrants and refugees wait for their train to leave Slavonski Brod in Croatia and head to Slovenia on 10 February 2016Darrin Zammit Lupi/ReutersWrecked boats and thousands of life jackets used by refugees and migrants during their journey across the Aegean sea lie in a dump in Mithimna on 19 February 2016Aris Messinis/AFPA refugee uses a twig to try to get his letters from the Swedish Migration Agency out of a postbox at the Restad Gård psychiatric hospital in Vänersborg on 12 February 2016. Many refugees check the post everyday and have to use a twig to try to get the mail out because refugees who had been housed at the former school took the keys with them when they leftDavid Ramos/Getty ImagesA Macedonian police officer speaking on a mobile phone and a man from Afghanistan look at each other through a fence at the Greek-Macedonian border on 22 February, 2016Robert Atanasovski/AFPA stray dog stands among outboard motors that were used by refugees and migrants to reach the Greek island of Lesbos on 23 February 2016Aris Messinis/AFPA man throws blankets from a train window as migrants are returned to a camp near the Macedonian-Greek border in Gevgelija, Macedonia on 24 February 2016Marko Djurica/ ReutersA family rests in the port of Piraeus, Athens where more than 1,500 refugees are temporarily staying, on 27 February 2016Milos Bicanski/Getty ImagesA young Afghan films burning shacks at the so-called Jungle camp in Calais on 1 March 2016Philippe Huguen/AFPA woman screams as refugees demonstrate behind a fence and barbed wire at the Greece-Macedonia border, near Gevgelija on 2 March 2016Dimitar Dilkoff/AFPDisplaced Iraqi families gather as they flee a military operation by Iraqi security personnel aimed at retaking areas from Islamic State group jihadists, in the desert west of the city of Samarra on 3 March 2016Ahmad al-Rubaye/AFPChildren lie on railway track as they hold banners reading 'Open the border' during a demonstration near the makeshift camp close to the Greek village of Idomeni near the Greek-Macedonian border where thousands of refugees were trapped by the Balkan border blockade on 12 March 2016Sakis Mitrolidis/AFPMigrants attempt to cross a river after leaving the Idomeni refugee camp in Idomeni, Greece on 13 March 2016Matt Cardy/Getty ImagesMigrants gather on the forecourt of a petrol station near the Idomeni refugee camp on the Greek-Macedonia border in Idomeni, Greece on 17 March 2016Matt Cardy/Getty ImageRefugees gather to listen to Nadia Murad Basee Taha, an Iraqi woman of the Yazidi faith who was abducted and held by the Islamic State for three months, at the Greek-Macedonian border near the village of Idomeni, Greece on 3 April 2016Marko Djurica/ ReutersA Syrian refugee holds a child carrying a placard during a protest by refugees and migrants who left a registration camp on the Greek island of Chios on 3 April 2016Louisa Gouliamaki/AFPRefugees clash with Greek policemen as they try to open the border fence at a makeshift camp at the Greek-Macedonian border near the village of Idomeni, Greece on 7 April 2016Marko Djurica/ ReutersA woman sits with her child after refugees tried to open the border fence at a makeshift camp at the Greek-Macedonian border near the village of Idomeni, Greece on 7 April 2016Marko Djurica/ ReutersA Macedonian policeman uses his baton to prevent refugees from opening the border fence at a makeshift camp at the Greek-Macedonian border near the village of Idomeni, Greece on 7 April 2016Marko Djurica/ ReutersMigrants scuffle with Greek police after they tried to push a train carriage through a police bus on rail tracks leading to Macedonia at a makeshift camp at the Greek-Macedonia border near the village of Idomeni, Greece on 11 April 2016Stoyan Nenov/ReutersA child sleeps near a tent at a makeshift camp for refugees at the Greek-Macedonia border near the village of Idomeni, Greece on 14 April 2016Stoyan Nenov/ReutersA child wears a paper crown during the Olympic Flame torch relay at the Eleonas refugee camp in Athens, Greece on 26 April 2016Alkis Konstantinidis/ReutersChildren's shadows are seen near graffiti in a makeshift camp for refugees on the Greek-Macedonia border on 4 May 2016Tobias Schwarz/AFPYoung refugees from Afghanistan watch a hotly-contested game of cricket being played on land where hundreds of refugees' tents and shelters were demolished earlier this year, as the teams play with makeshift wickets, tennis balls and donated bats in Calais, France on 10 May 2016Mary Turner/Getty ImagesTwo men react after being rescued off the coast of Libya by the Aquarius, a former North Atlantic fisheries protection ship now used by humanitarians SOS Mediterranee and Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors without Borders) on 24 May 2016Gabriel Bouys/AFPA man plays with a child at a makeshift camp at the Greek-Macedonia border near the village of Evzoni, Greece on 24 May 2016Marko Djurica/ ReutersRefugees are seen on a sinking boat before a rescue operation by Italian navy ships "Bettica" and "Bergamini" (out of picture) off the coast of Libya in this handout picture released by the Italian Marina Militare on 25 May 2016Marina Militare/ReutersA girl looks through a window of rescue ship 'Aquarius' as more than 380 migrants arrive in the port of Cagliari, Sardinia, two days after being rescued near the Libyan coast on 26 May 2016Gabriel Bouys/AFPA Syrian refugee from Aleppo holding her son's hand walks past an advertising banner used as a makeshift tent in a Syrian refugee camp in the town of Kab Elias in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley on 20 June 2016Patrick Baz/AFPHousaida, a Syrian refugee, rests inside the Spanish rescue vessel Astral after being rescued by the Spanish NGO Proactiva off the Libyan coast in the Mediterranean Sea on 18 August 2016Giorgos Moutafis/ReutersA man wearing a Union Jack flag reacts near French riot police during a protest near the area called the Jungle in Calais, France on 1 October 2016Pascal Rossignol/ReutersRefugees try to pull a child out of the water and onto a boat as they wait to be rescued by members of Proactiva Open Arms NGO in the Mediterranean, some 12 nautical miles north of Libya, on 4 October 2016Aris Messinis/AFPA woman holds onto a rope during a rescue operation some eight nautical miles off Libya's Mediterranean coastline on 12 October 2016Aris Messinis/AFPRefugees are seen on board a boat, during a rescue operation in the Mediterranea Sea on 20 October 2016Yara Nardi/ ReutersA woman waits to disembark from the rescue vessel Responder, a rescue boat run by the Malta-based NGO Migrant Offshore Aid Station and the Italian Red Cross, in the harbour of Vibo Marina, Italy on 22 October 2016Yara Nardi/ReutersA refugee sets fire to a toilet inside the Jungle camp in Calais, France on 24 October 2016Christopher Furlong/ Getty ImagesNewly displaced Iraqis who fled from the city of Mosul are reunited at a refugee camp with their relatives who arrived two years earlier on 26 October 2016Bulent Kilic/AFPA man attempts to retrieve a French tricolour flag as fire takes hold in the notorious Jungle camp as refugees leave and authorities demolish the site in Calais, France on 26 October 2016Christopher Furlong/Getty ImagesSmoke billows into the sky as migrants and journalists look at burning makeshift shelters and tents in the "Jungle" on the third day of their evacuation and transfer to reception centres in France, as part of the dismantling of the camp in Calais, France on 26 October 2016Philippe Wojazer/ReutersFrench policemen stand in the 'Jungle' refugee camp in Calais, northern France, during a massive operation to clear the settlement on 27 October 2016Philippe Huguen/AFPA couple with child ride a bus to the airport in Athens to take a special charter flight bound for France under EU relocation programme for refugees on 3 November 2016Louisa Gouliamaki/AFPA displaced Iraqi girl, who fled the Islamic State stronghold of Mosul, stands inside her family tent at Khazer camp, Iraq on 24 November 2016Mohammed Salem/ReutersAn Iraqi boy, who fled the Iraqi city of Mosul due to the fighting between government forces and Isis jihadists, poses at the UN-run al-Hol refugee camp in Syria's Hasakeh province, on 5 December 2016Delil Souleiman/AFPA refugee sits in a makeshift shelter at an abandoned warehouse in Belgrade, Serbia on 8 December 2016Andrej Isakovic/AFPInternally displaced Afghan refugees collect water from a hand pump in Herat, Afghanistan on 10 December 2016Aref Karimi/AFPA choir of locals and refugees sing: 'We Are the World' near the site where two days earlier a man drove a heavy goods vehicle into a Christmas market in an apparent terrorist attack in Berlin, Germany on 21 December 2016Sean Gallup/Getty ImagesA child looks on at the Ritsona refugee camp, north of Athens, Greece on 21 December 2016Louisa Gouliamaki/AFPChloe, a Lebanese Christian teenager dressed as Santa Claus, hands a present to a Syrian refugee, during a gift distribution organised by the Maronite congregation 'Mission de Vie' in the town of Dbayeh, north of Beirut on 24 December 2016Patrick Baz/AFP
