European Union countries recorded a total of 13,200 irregular crossings of their external border, which is 12 percent less than those detected at the same time last year, according to data from the European Border and Coast Guard (Frontex), which notes that only arrivals via the central Mediterranean route increased.
Thus, the number of migrants who tried to reach the European Union illegally through the central Mediterranean doubled last January compared to 2022, adding up to 4,500 cases, mostly of people from Tunisia, Libya and Turkey.
The rest of the routes registered very diverse decreases, from a 5 percent drop on the Western Balkan or Eastern Mediterranean routes to the largest reductions on the entry routes through Spain, both the Western Mediterranean (-49 percent) and the Western African route that reaches the Canary Islands (-82 percent).
All in all, the Western Balkans remain the main gateway for irregular migration in the aftermath of the pandemic, with 43 percent of all cases detected last January, totaling 5,751 crossings.
Overall, most of the migrants intercepted came from Afghanistan, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea and Syria, Frontex said in a statement,
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
