Bruxelles, 03/02/2012 (Agence Europe) - More than 38,000 migrants were detected entering the EU illegally in the last quarter of 2011, an increase of 11% compared to the same period of 2010, according to the agency Frontex in a report dated 18 January. Amongst other things, the agency observed an increase in entries at known crossing points, the border between Greece and Turkey and Lampedusa. The agency also saw an increase in applications for international protection, with 64,000 applications submitted in the member states.
Afghan nationals, the agency continues, are the top nationality of migrants entering the EU illegally, representing a quarter of all entries, followed by Pakistani nationals, who are mostly “young, educated men who were unemployed in their country”. Most of these Pakistani nationals arrived in Germany, Italy, Belgium, France and the United Kingdom.
In detail, Frontex explains, 18,000 illegal migrants were detected on the border between Greece and Turkey, 46% of whom came from Afghanistan. An increase in entries by Balkan nationals was also observed. These transit via Hungary and Slovenia and also via Greece to reach other countries of the EU.
For those who entered via Lampedusa, who overtook the Greek-Turkish border at the beginning of 2011 with the events of the “Arab Spring”, the drop was radical, nearly 50%, and 12,000 entries were observed, Frontex continues, including 3370 Tunisians and 3000 Nigerians.
As for Spain, another country in the front line, it saw its greatest increase in illegal entries for three years (more than 60%), with 3500 people arriving from North or sub-Saharan Africa, making the country the “third-largest point of entry to the EU”, states the agency.
As regards applications for international protection, Frontex notes that the largest number of these were submitted in Italy by nationals of Nigeria, Ghana, Mali and Pakistan. The number of applications submitted from Pakistan and Afghanistan also rose in Germany and Austria.
On the subject of asylum, Commissioner Cecilia Malmström also stressed in an article in the Tagesspiegel newspaper their responsibilities to the member states, with certain planks of the “asylum package” still in deadlock. She called on the 27 to commit to finalise the European asylum system by the end of 2012. The Commissioner also pointed out that, in spring 2011, 75% of asylum requests were concentrated in just six countries (including Germany, France and the United Kingdom). The other member states “can and must do more”, she said. The EU could still receive more refugees. After the war in Libya, she added, 700,000 people fled their country and are living in neighbouring countries and of the 8000 people designated as in the greatest need of protection, “the EU took just 400”, nearly as much as Norway, which is not a member of the EU, alone. (SP/transl.fl)