Mediterranean Deaths Down 25% This Year

The number of migrant deaths in the Mediterranean this year is 1,370, almost 25% fewer than the same time last year.

The International Organisation for Migrants (IOM) said the figures might reflect improved policies for managing the flow of people.

IOM spokesman Joel Millman said: "We attribute this drop in fatalities to the extremely sharp drop in arrivals from Turkey in Greece.

"As the Turkish-Greece migration route appears to be suspended, we hope this is the beginning of a sound migration management policy."

He added: "It is possible, I want to stress possible, that the period of stark fatality since 2013 may have run its course by now, maybe we'll see a safer summer."

The death toll included 13 this month, but none of them were in the eastern Mediterranean route between Turkey and Greece.

The information comes as hundreds of Greek police moved in to transfer refugees and migrants from the Idomeni site on its border with Macedonia.

By midday, 18 buses with 838 people on board had left Greece's largest informal refugee camp bound for new refugee camps in northern Greece.

Vicky Markolefa, a representative of the Doctors Without Borders charity, said the operation was proceeding "very smoothly" and without incident.

"We hope it will continue like that," she said.

Greece has promised that police will not use force.

The operation is expected to last between seven and 10 days.