Illegal migration to Europe hit record level – EU agency
DAMASCUS, Syria (North Press) – The number of illegal migrations into the European Union across the Central Mediterranean in the first four months of 2023 quadrupled compared to a year earlier, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex), said on Tuesday.
The number of migrants crossing the EU’s borders illegally “reached nearly 80,700, nearly 30% more than a year ago and the highest total for the January-April period since 2016,” the agency said.
The Central Mediterranean route alone has recorded almost 42,200 irregular crossings, it added, noting that criminal smuggling groups take the Italian island of Lampedusa as their main destination in this route.
Syrians, Frontex said, constituted a 17 percent majority of the total number recorded on all routes. However, their numbers have dropped in recent months compared to nationals from Sub-Saharan countries.
On April 12, a UN agency said that 441 migrants and refugees drowned in early 2023 “while attempting to cross the central Mediterranean from North Africa to Europe, the most fatalities in the past six years over a three-month period.”