The EU Border and Coastguard Agency (Frontex), on Monday, said the number of detected illegal border crossings into EU on the main migratory routes fell sharply in February, down 42 per cent the previous month.
SEE ALSO: Ministry of Industry Applauds KADCCIMA for Successful Trade Fair
The largest proportion of the 6,200 cases in February were recorded on the Eastern Mediterranean route, which runs across Turkey and Greece, though the number fell 42 per cent to around 2,500 from January.
The February number does not reflect the increased number of migrants who had sought to enter Greece since March 1, as a result of Turkish President Reccep Erdogan’s announcement that Turkish-Greek border had been opened to refugees.
However, the biggest proportion, more than a third, of those who took the Eastern Mediterranean route in February came from Afghanistan, with Syrian citizens second and Turkish third.
The second-highest proportion, 1,250 cases, was registered on the Western Balkan route, less than half the number registered in January. Most of the 1,250 were Syrian and Afghan nationals.
Frontex noted that at 1,200, the number detected on the Western Mediterranean Sea route in February remained mostly unchanged from January. Algerians accounted for nearly half the migrants detected.
The number of illegal crossings detected in February on the Central Mediterranean route, to Italy and Malta, fell by nearly three quarters from January to just over 450.
The top three nationalities registered were Bangladeshi, Algerian and Ivorian.
Frontex added that in spite of the sharp drop in February, the number of illegal border crossings for the first two months of 2020 reached 16,900, up 27 per cent from the same period of 2019.
Leave a Reply