The Western Balkans route is the most commonly used, but Frontex warns of pressures in the Central Mediterranean
In total, a total of 155,090 people entered Europe irregularly between January 1 and July 31, 2022, as reported on Monday by the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex), which has also warned that this figure represents an increase of 86% compared to the numbers handled in the same period last year.
In this sense, the agency has indicated that EU Member States registered 34,570 irregular arrivals at their borders in July alone, 63% more than in the same month of 2021.
As Frontex reports, in a statement collected by Europa Press, the Western Balkans remains the most active migration route to the Union with 14,866 discoveries in July, almost three times more than last year. In fact, it has pointed out that this route represents half of all detections in this area, with 70,770 illegal entries. That is almost three times as much as in the same period last year. The main nationalities on this route were immigrants from Syria, Afghanistan and Turkey.
On the other hand, and although it is not the most numerous route, Frontex has warned that the pressure is “very high” in the central Mediterranean with “daily arrivals” which, as they have explained, “put pressure on the reception capacity in Italy to make “. In this case, 42,549 irregular arrivals were registered in the first seven months of 2022, 44% more than in the same period of 2021.
In July alone, the number of people entering the EU illegally reached 14,800, 60% more than a year earlier. On this route, the agency explained that although Tunisians (30%) were the main nationality registered on this route last month, in the overall data for the year, the Egyptians used the most, mainly from Libya.
As for the western Mediterranean, 6,434 illegal entries were detected, 25% less than last year. In that sense, they explained that “criminal smuggling networks tried to take advantage of calm weather conditions to organize simultaneous trips on jet skis.” “Most of the migrants detected on this route came from Morocco,” Frontex said.
Similarly, experts have highlighted that the number of irregular migrants seeking to cross the Channel with small boats into the UK remained “high” with around 28,000 detections, including attempts and crossings, representing a 55% increase over the same period in 2021. According to the report. the opinion links this growth to “the improvement in seasonal weather conditions and the potential impact of the new UK migration plan.”
This year, the agency has highlighted the situation of people fleeing Ukraine and entering the EU through border crossings who, as it noted, are not included in the number of illegal entries detected. However, he has indicated that since the start of the war (last February), 7.7 million Ukrainian citizens have fled their country to the EU. “At the same time, a significant number of Ukrainian citizens have returned to their country,” Frontex noted.
Source: La Verdad
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