migration
Frontex: Highest number of unauthorized border crossings since 2015
Frontex vehicle at the EU external border in Sighetu Marmatiei, Romania. photo
© Bernd von Jutrczenka/dpa
The EU border protection agency Frontex reports 331,600 unauthorized border crossings. This is the highest value since 2015. But there are also declining numbers on some routes.
In the first ten months of this year, 331,600 people tried to enter the EU irregularly. This was the highest value for this period since 2015, according to the EU border protection agency Frontex announced in Warsaw. In October alone, Frontex registered 49,600 such attempts, which was 18 percent more compared to the same period last year.
On the West African route across the Atlantic – i.e. from Morocco, Senegal and Western Sahara to the Canary Islands – the number of entry attempts rose to 27,700, almost double the same period last year. According to Frontex, this is the highest value since statistical recording began in 2009.
Most entry attempts via the central Mediterranean
According to the information, the highest number of entry attempts (143,600) occurred on the route via the central Mediterranean, i.e. from Libya and Tunisia via Sicily and Malta. Since 2016, Frontex has not recorded so many attempts here in the first ten months of a year. In October, however, the number (9,600) fell by half compared to the previous month.
There was a decline in attempted unauthorized entries (97,300) on the route via the Western Balkans, which in terms of numbers was second only to the route via the central Mediterranean passage. The decline here was 22 percent compared to the same period last year. Frontex attributes this to stricter visa regulations in the Balkan countries.
Frontex with report