Mediterranean refugee and migrant numbers pass 300,000 in 2015

A police car escorts a truck carrying coffins as it leaves a customs building with refrigeration facilities in the village of Nickelsdorf, Austria, August 28, 2015. REUTERS/Heinz-Peter Bader

GENEVA (Reuters) - The number of refugees and migrants crossing the Mediterranean to reach Europe has passed 300,000 this year, up from 219,000 in the whole of 2014, the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR said on Friday.

More than 2,500 people have died making the crossing this year, not including about 200 who are feared to have drowned off Libya on Thursday. That compares with 3,500 who died or went missing in the Mediterranean in 2014.