In 2021, the number of illegal EU border crossings reached its highest level since 2017. According to preliminary data, the figure, which also included registered attempts, was about 196,000. Such statistics were released on Tuesday, January 11, by the European Border and Coast Guard Agency Frontex.
According to his estimates, this is 57% more than in 2020, and 36% more than in 2019, when restrictions due to the outbreak of a pandemic two years ago significantly affected migration processes. Talking about 2021, Frontex recalled the “hybrid operation” against the EU on the border with Belarus.
Natives of Syria, Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria and Afghanistan
The detainees were mainly from Syria, Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria and Afghanistan.
Most illegal border crossings (over 65,000) were recorded along the central Mediterranean route. In the West Balkan direction, about 61,500 cases were recorded, in the West African (with the final destination in the Canary Islands) – about 22,500, on the West Mediterranean – about 18,000. Baltics and Poland – about 7900. Compared to 2020, it was about a tenfold increase in indicators, the agency dpa pointed out.
The same face could have been counted multiple times
As the agency epd clarifies, the statistics include attempts and successful illegal entries, in connection with which the same person could be counted several times.
Earlier, on December 9, 2021, German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser called Minsk’s use of migrants as a tool in a conflict with the European Union “scandalous and inhuman”.
The ruler of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko exploits people in distress for the sake of achieving domestic political goals, Feather said in Brussels during her first meeting with her colleagues from other EU states.
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