(Corrects headline as IOM is an inter-governmental agency, not
an NGO)
* Death toll at sea down 25 percent so far this year, IOM
says
* No fatalities in May on Turkey-Greece route where flow
slowed
* Many rescued at sea, Libya coast guard turns back others
By Stephanie Nebehay
GENEVA, May 24 (Reuters) - Fewer migrants are dying as they
try to cross the Mediterranean to Europe, which may reflect
better management of refugee flows and swifter rescue
operations, the International Organization for Migration (IOM)
said on Tuesday.
So far this year 1,370 migrants and refugees have perished
at sea, nearly 25 percent fewer than in the same period last
year, IOM spokesman Joel Millman said. An estimated 191,134
people have arrived by boat so far this year in Italy, Greece,
Cyprus and Spain.
The death toll included 13 in May, none of them on the
eastern Mediterranean route between Turkey and Greece, where
arrivals have slowed to a trickle since the European Union
struck an agreement with Turkey to get it to curb the flow.
This compared with 95 deaths in May a year ago and 330 in
May 2014. More than 3,770 people are estimated to have died in
the whole of 2015, most of them by drowning after their flimsy,
overloaded boats capsized.
"Obviously now that the Turkey-Greece route appears
suspended for the time being, we hope that this is the beginning
of a sound management policy of refugees and migrants who wish
to make the crossing and don't take these enormous risks,"
Millman told a news briefing.
Some 2,725 migrants were rescued attempting to reach Europe
from Libya over the past 24 hours by various vessels, he said.
IOM also had reports that Libya's coastguard had turned back 850
migrants.
IOM has had greater access to Libya since a U.N.-backed
national unity government was formed last month. The agency is
helping to organise charter flights to repatriate sub-Saharan
migrants who agree to take a package or receive a re-integration
grant.
"Those are also key developments that indicate that it's
possible, and I want to stress that it's possible, that the
period of stark lethality that has been going on since 2013 may
have run its course by now," Millman said. "Maybe we'll see a
safer summer than we had anticipated a few weeks ago."