Frontex said it estimated that some 281,000 cases of illegal entry were detected at EU external borders in the first ten months of 2022; This represents a 77 percent increase over the same period in 2021, the highest recorded since 2016.
And in October last year alone, about 42,000 cases of illegal border crossings were registered in the member states of the European Union in the same month, which is 71 percent more than in 2021.
The same agency confirmed that while the number of migrants illegally crossing EU borders is increasing, the number of illegal entries from the western Mediterranean is declining.
Crossing this traditional migration route was down 2 percent in October last year compared to the same period in 2021, according to data from Frontex.
The same agency confirmed that the Western Mediterranean route is still used mainly by Moroccans, Algerians and Syrians. According to the same source, entry from the West African route, which is mainly used by Moroccans and Senegalese, has also been reduced by 50 percent.
Migration pressure is also expected to be strong in the central Mediterranean, which is classified as the second active route into the European Union, according to the same source, saying that entry from this route, widely used by Egyptians, Tunisians and Bangladeshis, increased by 81 percent in October. last year compared to the same period in 2021.
The agency also confirmed that the route through the Western Balkans remains the most active route to the European Union, with more than 22,300 transactions detected in October, almost three times more than a year earlier.
According to Frontex, the Western Balkans region is currently the source of the highest number of border crossings recorded since the peak of the migration crisis in 2015.
It is noteworthy that since the announcement of the start of a new phase of the security agreement between Madrid and Rabat, the level of illegal migration on the Mediterranean and Atlantic coasts has dropped to a record level this summer, according to data from the Spanish Ministry of the Interior.
