On 22 June, Frontex indicated in new statistics that the number of illegal crossings at Europe’s external borders nearly doubled over the course of the first five months of 2021 compared to the same period in 2020, with more than 47,100 crossings—that being 47% more than the total a year ago.
In May, the number of illegal border crossings reached 10,500—more than double the figure for the same month last year; 4,200 of these were in the central Mediterranean (double). Between...