Geneva – IOM, the UN Migration Agency, reports that 165,409 migrants and refugees entered Europe by sea in 2017 through 6 December, with nearly 20,000 of those arriving to Spain via the Western Mediterranean route. While the total number of arrivals to Europe across the Mediterranean is about half compared with the same period last year, the number of arrivals using the Western Mediterranean route to Spain is nearly triple that of last year, while deaths on the Western route have increased more than 40 per cent compared with 2016.