REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, GENEVA -- More than 218,000 migrants and refugees crossed the Mediterranean to Europe in October -- a monthly record and nearly the same number of crossings for all of 2014, the United Nations said Monday.

"Last month was a record month for arrivals," UN refugee agency spokesman Adrian Edwards told AFP, 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 219,000 arrivals during all of last year, UN figures showed.

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