In the first half of this year, more people crossed Europe’s external borders via “irregular routes” than in previous years. People crossed the border 132,370 times, according to the European border control organization Frontex.
That number has not been this high since 2016. The increase is entirely due to an increase in the number of people crossing the Mediterranean to Italy. This is also by far the deadliest route.
Frontex calculates with six different migration routes. One of them is a departure route, namely the one towards the United Kingdom. The others are via the eastern border (6000 kilometers between the EU and Belarus, Moldova, Ukraine and Russia), the western Balkans, the Canary Islands and three routes via the western, eastern and central Mediterranean. With the exception of the latter, the number of crossings on all those routes has decreased, according to Frontex.
The route through the Central Mediterranean leads from North Africa to Italy. This has long been a very important route for refugees and others trying to reach Europe. 2016 was a record year with 181,459 crossings according to Frontex data. In the first half of this year, 65,571 people crossed the border there. This is 137 percent more than last year.
Drowned
Frontex emphasizes that the number of crossings is not necessarily equal to the number of people who have traveled to the EU. This is because people can cross the border multiple times.
The UN migration organization IOM keeps figures on the people who go missing or die in the Mediterranean. By far the most deaths occur on the central route. Until July it was 1727 people. 2016 was also a record year in these figures, with 5139 people dying en route to Europe. Almost all the dead drown, although it also happens that people die due to bad conditions, accidents or crimes.