A record 218,000 migrants crossed the Mediterranean in October – 2,000 more than the amount for the whole of 2014, UN reveal

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More than 218,000 migrants and refugees crossed the Mediterranean to Europe in October, more than the total number of arrivals in 2014, the United Nations said Monday.

Last month broke all records for people making the crossing, with a majority of people arriving in Greece after making the shorter journey across the Aegean Sea from Turkey rather than aiming for Italy and Lampedusa.

It is believed that fears that the EU is about to close its borders has caused a spike in numbers as thousands of desperate refugees risk their lives by crossing the Mediterranean.

Not alone: Some 218,400 refugees and migrants made the perilous journey across the Mediterranean Sea in October alone, compared to 216,054 arrivals during all of 2014

'Last month was a record month for arrivals,' said UN refugee agency spokesman Adrian Edwards, pointing out that 'arrivals in October parallelled the entire 2014.'

In October, 218,394 people made the perilous crossing - all but 8,000 of them landing in Greece - compared to 216,054 Mediterranean arrivals during all of last year, UN figures show. 

The soaring numbers of arrivals last month brought to over 744,000 the number of people who have made the journey so far this year.

The October figures show that despite the increasingly harrowing conditions at sea at the onset of winter, refugees from Syria and other trouble spots continue to pile into boats heading west, fearing that Europe is about to close its borders.

Among the more than 600,000 migrants and refugees who have crossed to Greece since the beginning of the year, 94 per cent come from the world's top 10 refugee-producing countries.

Some of many: In October, 218,394 people made the perilous crossing - all but 8,000 of them landing in Greece

Long journey: A young girl and two boys have been wrapped in emergency blankets after have disembarked from a small boat on the northern shore of Lesbos, Greece on Monday

Making a run for it: People rush to disembark from a rubber boat at a beach on Lesbos on Monday

The ballooning number of crossings has had dire consequences, with the numbers of deaths piling up by the day.

Earlier Monday, the Greek coastguard reported that the bodies of four refugees had been recovered off the Greek island of Farmakonisi after their boat sank overnight.

Another six people who had been travelling on the boat are still missing, and four people were rescued, the coastguard said in a statement.   

Some 3,440 people have died or gone missing trying to cross the Mediterranean to Europe so far this year, according to UNHCR numbers last week.

Life jackets and inflatable rubber dinghies used by refugees to cross the Mediterranean Sea on the beach near Eftalou - Skala Sikaminias area on Lesbos on Friday last week

High risk: The latest tragedies bring the migrant death toll off the coast of Greece in the past month to over 80

The figures do not take into account today's tragedy or that which took place off the coast of Greece on Sunday.

At least 15 migrants and refugees, including six children, drowned when two boats making the hazardous crossing from Turkey capsized.

Most of the Mediterranean deaths this year have happened on the longer, more dangerous route to Italy, but with surging numbers attempting the far shorter crossing from Turkey to Greece, the death toll along that route has been mounting.

The latest tragedies bring the migrant death toll in Greece's waters in the past month to over 80, many of them children.