The UNHCR announced that 113.482 persons did manage to reach Europe via sea in 2018. The same report states that 2.262 migrants and refugees lost their lives in the Mediterranean in their attempts to reach Europe.

172.301 persons had reached Europe via sea in 2017, and 3.139 persons had lost their lives or were lost at sea.

Compared to 2015, when 1 million people reached Europe, there is a great reduction in numbers of migrants and refugees. Western countries have struck deals with countries like Libya, where the war continues, and Turkey, which uses the refugees as a tool for blackmail, to stop the flow. These deals are widely considered inhumane by human rights defenders and migrants associations.

Many associations have protested European governments for playing a heavy role in the deaths in the Mediterranean. The Mediterranean Sea in its current state is considered to be the biggest migrant cemetery in the world. Instead of taking humane precautions to stop the deaths, governments have blocked the ships that belong to NGOs working in rescue in the Mediterranean this year.