Migration and the control of illegal migration from the Third World countries to the developed countries has been a huge global challenge.

The Italian Interior Ministry has announced that in 2016, nearly a 181,000 migrants arrived Italy by boat, Times of India reports.

In commenting on the figures, a ministry official lamented on the lack of help by the European Union in managing the illegal migration rate in the country. He lamented that 2016 has recorded an alarming migration rate in the country.

“It was a record year for arrivals, and despite all the ‘alarmism’, Italy has held up with great dignity,” Mario Morcone expressed.

“And it has done so without a great deal of European solidarity.”

Taking a review of the immigration rate between 2014 and 2016, Reuters reports that in 2015, EU member states promised to relocate 40,000 asylum seekers from Italy to other countries over two years, but only 2,654 have so far been moved. Several states have refused to take any.

After an agreement between the European Union and Turkey to curb the flow of migrants sailing for Greece, Italy became the focus of people smugglers based mostly in Libya, who pack men, women and children onto unsafe boats for the crossing.

More than 181,000 migrants arrived in Italy by boat in 2016, an increase of almost 18 percent compared with 2015. The 2016 total excludes possible new arrivals on Friday and Saturday.

Since the beginning of 2014, more than 500,000 boat migrants have reached Italy from North Africa. Many have fled war, poverty or political oppression, and there is no sign that they will stop coming in the new year.