Frontex: 86% increase in irregular entries into the EU between January and July

The number of irregular entries into the European Union rose by 86% between January and July to 155,090 compared to the same period last year, Frontex, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, announced today.

In July, the number of admissions rose 63% year-on-year to 34,570, according to a statement releasing the preliminary data.

Frontex clarified that Ukrainian refugees entering the EU through border crossings were not taken into account in these calculations.

According to Frontex, 7.7 million Ukrainian citizens have entered the EU since the start of the Russian invasion in February.

More than 14,866 irregular entries, “almost triple” compared to last July, were recorded through the Balkan Route, which continues to be “the most active”, with 70,770 cases detected in the seven months of the year.

The main nationalities on this route were migrants from Syria, Afghanistan and Turkey.

The Central Mediterranean route was used by more than 42,500 migrants between January and July, a 44% increase compared to the first seven months of last year.

The number of cases detected on the Eastern Mediterranean route remained high with 22,601 arrivals, “more than double” compared to last year.

The number of arrivals in Cyprus represented more than half of the total number of detected cases, most of them being migrants from Syria, Nigeria and Congo.

At the EU’s eastern border, the number of irregular crossings fell by 32% since the start of the year, to 2,923.

The nationalities that followed this route were mainly Ukrainian, Iraqi and Belarusian citizens.

Crossings on both sides of the Channel increased by 55% compared to the period January-July 2021, with 28,000 cases detected, according to Frontex.

SOURCE: AMPE