According to EU data, the number of illegal border crossings on the Western Balkans route has more than doubled since last year. On the other hand, significantly fewer migrants and refugees have come across the Mediterranean, the EU border protection agency Frontex announced today. Overall, the illegal border crossings into the EU decreased by 21 percent compared to the previous year.
In the first ten months of this year, more than 19,700 people without valid papers were picked up on the Balkan route – more than twice as many as in the same period last year. Around half of the migrants were Syrians, a quarter came from Afghanistan.
On the other hand, there was a significant decline in the number of crossings of the Mediterranean, Frontex said. In the western Mediterranean, the agency registered 13,400 migrants and refugees in the first ten months of this year – a decrease of 37 percent compared to the same period last year. In the eastern Mediterranean, which connects Turkey with Greece and was one of the main migration routes in the past, the numbers fell by 75 percent compared to the previous year.
