No less than 330,000 irregular entries were recorded in 2022. The number of illegal immigrants in the European Union increased in 2022 by 64% compared to the previous year, reaching the highest level since 2016, announced this Friday the European Border Surveillance Agency, Frontex. 45% of irregular entries were recorded on the Western Balkan route.
The number of affected Syrian nationals nearly doubled to 94,000. “This is the second consecutive year with a sharp increase in the number of irregular entries,” Frontex said in a statement, adding that Syrians, Afghans and Tunisians together accounted for 47% of irregular entries in 2022.
19% women and children
On the Western Balkan route 145,600 crossings were recorded, an increase of 136% compared to the previous year. The Central Mediterranean route, the second busiest, saw the number of crossings exceed 100,000, an increase of more than 50%.
Around 10% of irregular entries were made by women and around 9% by minors. In France, a bill on immigration should arrive in first reading at the end of March in the Senate, dominated by the right. It aims to encourage the expulsion of foreigners who present a “threat” to public order, in particular through a “structural” reform of asylum and litigation for foreigners.