Brussels, 19/04/2013 (Agence Europe) - Frontex, the European Union's border agency, announced on Thursday 18 April 2013 that the number of illegal aliens entering the European Union almost halved in 2012 to 72,430, down 49% on the 141,060 illegal immigrants detected in 2011.
The drop is due to tighter border controls between Greece and Turkey, which has, for a long time, been the weakest link in the EU's borders. Greece deployed an additional 1,800 border guards in August 2012 to strengthen border controls on land and built a controversial barbed wire fence along part of its border with Turkey. These measures had a clear impact, says Frontex, because the number of illegal border crossings went from around 2,000 in the first week of August to fewer than ten a week in October. In total, in the eastern Mediterranean (Greece, Bulgaria and Cyprus), the number of illegal border crossings fell by 35% in 2012 to 37,220, but Frontex says the second reason for the falling numbers is the fact there was a hike in illegal immigrants in 2011 due to the Arab Spring. Illegal border crossings to Italy and Malta fell by 82% to 10,380 in 2012 from 59,000 in 2011 (and 1,660 in 2010). Frontex says the Arab Spring led to illegal immigrants crossing the Aegean Sea in the first quarter of 2013, crossing the border between Turkey and Bulgaria and using Istanbul Airport. In 2012, most illegal immigrants into the EU came from Afghanistan, Syria, Albania, Algeria and Bangladesh. (SP/transl.fl)