Illegal border crossings have decreased especially on the routes through the Western Balkans and the central part of the Mediterranean.
Detected illegal border crossings into the European Union have clearly decreased this year, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency Frontex said on Tuesday.
During the first nine months of the year, there have been 42 percent fewer illegal border crossings than in the same period last year. Between January and September of this year, there have been 166,000 border crossings.
Illegal border crossings have decreased, especially on routes through the Western Balkans and the central Mediterranean. Meanwhile, border crossings on the West African route and the EU’s eastern land border have increased.
The number of border crossings along the West African route has doubled. There have been 30,600 crossings in January-September this year.
The biggest increase this year has been at the EU’s eastern land border, where nearly 13,200 border crossings were observed in January-September. That’s an increase of more than 190 percent compared to the same time last year.