In 2022, around 330,000 irregular border crossings were detected at the EU’s external border, according to preliminary calculations published on Friday 13 January by the Frontex agency.
“This is the highest number since 2016 and an increase of 64% compared to the previous year”, Frontex said in a statement.
The Western Balkan route accounted for 45% of all detections and the Eastern Mediterranean route also saw a significant increase in detections.
Syrians, Afghans and Tunisians accounted for 47% of detections in 2022. And the number of Syrians almost doubled to 94,000.
Specifically, in 2022, 145,600 irregular border crossings were reported on the Western Balkans route. This is 136% more than in 2021, and the highest number of reported crossings on this route since 2015.
For the Eastern Mediterranean, approximately 42,800 irregular crossings were detected. Syrians, Afghans and Nigerians were the main nationalities reported.
For the central Mediterranean, the number of detections increased by more than half compared to 2021, reaching 108,000 detections. “Egyptians, Tunisians and Bangladeshis were the top three nationalities in a year that saw the highest number of arrivals in this region from Libya since 2017”.
Link to statistics: https://aeur.eu/f/4vr (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)