The maritime immigration route to Italy and Malta becomes minor
(B2) Despite the media frenzy of the Italian political scene, animated in large part by the diatribes of Matteo Salvini, the number of illegal crossings to Italy (and Malta) has now become very small in the flow of illegal migrants , according to the latest figures compiled by the European Border and Coast Guard (Frontex).
For the first seven months of the year (January to July 2019), 4890 crossings were detected on the central route of the Mediterranean, towards Italy and Malta, coming in particular from Tunisia, Sudan and Pakistan. This represents less than 10% of detections (1).
It is the 'East' maritime route (towards Greece) which is the main route: 28.200 people have been detected in the eastern part of the Mediterranean towards Europe. Most of them came from Afghanistan and Syria. To this must be added the 1040 passages via Albania (mainly Albanians).
The 'West' maritime route (towards Spain) is the second main source with 13.164 detections (from Morocco in particular).
And the Balkan route is the third access route: 5794 crossings detected (mainly from Afghanistan and Iran) to Croatia (and Hungary).
Illegal crossing of land borders in Eastern Europe remains very limited (302 detections).
Look the carte of Frontex and download the spreadsheet giving the figures, country of origin by country of origin
(NGV)
- We are talking about detection of illegal passages (which can sometimes overlap with the passage of the same person).
