A total of 231 migrants arrived in Malta by sea up to August 13 this year, according to the UNHCR, the UN refugee agency.
In a factsheet published on Friday, the agency said the number included two medical evacuations.
This year's arrivals compared to 75 in 2022, 458 in 2021 and 2,045 in 2020. Most - 84% - departed from Libya, the rest from Tunisia.
Of this year's arrivals, 65% (149) were Bangladeshi, 9% (21) Syrian, 8% (19) Guinean, 7% (17) Cameroonian, 6% (13) Egyptian, 2% (five) Sudanese, and 1% (three each) were Palestinian and South Sudanese.
The nationality of one person is unknown as it was not possible to register him due to his medical condition.
The UNHCR said this marked a change in the composition of nationalities of arrivals in comparison to 2022, when 51% of arrivals were Bangladeshi, 28% Syrian and 8% Egyptian.
The majority of arrivals so far this year – 195 (84%) - were adult males, compared to 65% in 2021 and 80% in 2022. Additionally, 7% (16) were adult women and 9% (20) were children, two of whom were accompanied.
As of July 3, 227 individuals were residing in open reception centres in Malta and an additional 210 in the community.
Some 69% (156) of the population in the reception centres were adult males, 92% of them were living at the Ħal Far Tent Village. The top three nationalities residing in the open centres were Somali (18%), Sudanese (17%) and Syrian (13%).
There were 282 applications for asylum in the first half of 2023, of which 225 were first-time applications, 54 were subsequent, and three were re-opened/reviewed.
Nationals from Bangladesh, Sudan and Syria were among the top three nationalities applying. By June 30, the International Protection Agency had issued 1,160 decisions at first-instance. The recognition rate stood at 16% (178), while the rejection rate stood at 36% (421).
The average waiting time for a first-instance decision (substantive, grant or rejection) issued in 2023 was 2.3 years.
International protection was granted on average after 2.6 years for Syrians, 2.4 years for Eritreans, and 2.7 years for Somalis. The average time for rejected cases stood at 2.9 years for Sudanese, 3.3 years for Syrians, 2.5 years for Somali, and almost 54 days for Bangladeshis.
Temporary protection to people fleeing Ukraine war
Malta has granted 420 temporary protection certificates up to August 13 to eligible persons fleeing the war in Ukraine.
In total, 2,055 certificates have been issued since February 2022.
Most of the applicants in 2023 were Ukrainian nationals, except three, one adult female and one adult male from Russia and one adult male from Georgia. Women and children account for about 74% (310) of the TP certificates issued during 2023.