In the first ten months of 2022, “275,500 irregular entries were detected at the external borders of the European Union, according to preliminary calculations by Frontex analysts,” the European agency in charge of border management outside the Schengen area reported in a statement. and the EU. press release published Monday.
This is an increase of 73% compared to the same period in 2021 and the “highest figure since 2016”, Frontex notes. The “Balkan route”, which passes in particular through Bulgaria, Serbia, Albania, Montenegro and Bosnia-Herzegovina, was the busiest.
The agency attributes the high number of crossings to “repeated attempts to cross the border by immigrants already present in the Western Balkans, but also to people abusing visa-free access to the region.”
“Some migrants use visa-free access to pass through Belgrade airport and then proceed overland to the EU’s external borders,” Frontex continues.
The Mediterranean, the second most used route
The “central” Mediterranean, which Frontex locates between Sardinia and Sicily, was the second most used route. The Mediterranean has been at the center of political discussions for several days, following the arrival in France of the Ocean Viking. The situation of this humanitarian ship of the NGO SOS Méditerranée caused a diplomatic crisis between Paris and Rome last week, when the head of the Italian Government, Giorgia Meloni, refused to welcome the 230 migrants who had been wandering for several weeks by sea.
These immigrants were finally disembarked in Toulon and placed in an “international waiting room”, denounced by associations for the “deprivation of liberty” that it engenders.
An agreement between France and the United Kingdom
The Canal, a route followed according to Frontex by more than 60,000 irregular immigrants since the beginning of the year -a figure that includes attempts and real crossings-, was the subject of a cooperation agreement between France and the United Kingdom on Monday.
The agreement provides for an endowment of 72.2 million euros that the British will have to pay in 2022-2023 to France to increase from 800 to 900 the number of police and gendarmes on the French beaches from where the immigrants leave and the financing of parking spaces. London. in immigrant reception centers in the south of France to discourage exiles crossing the Mediterranean from returning to Calais.
New surveillance drones, detection dogs, in-depth common intelligence to stop traffickers (55 networks dismantled since 2020) and work “as soon as possible” with the countries of origin and transit of the exiles, are part of the dozen actions listed in the deal.
More than 900 people dead or missing in Europe
This agreement was signed almost a year after the death of 27 immigrants on November 24, 2021, when their ship sank off Calais, the worst tragedy on record in the Channel. according to the newspaper The world citing elements of the judicial investigation carried out in Paris, the passengers of the “small boat“In distress he had called the French authorities about fifteen times but they had waited for them to reach English waters.
“Nothing contained in this agreement will prevent a new tragedy from happening tomorrow in the Canal,” lamented the French NGO France Terre d’Asile.
Since 2014, more than 900 people have died or disappeared on European migration routes, by sea or by land, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
Source: BFM TV
