Irregular border crossings to the European Union increased significantly in 2022, as FRONTEX – the EU’s border agency – noted a rise of 64% from the previous year estimating “around 330 000 irregular border crossings were detected at EU’s external border, according to preliminary calculations. This is the highest number since 2016 and an increase of 64% from the previous year.” [1] The majority of the irregular border crossings were “reported on the Western Balkan and Eastern Mediterranean routes with numbers surging by 136% and 108% respectively. The Western Balkan route alone accounted for 45% of all irregular entries in 2022. The perilous Central Mediterranean route meanwhile accounted for nearly a third of all such arrivals (+51% year-on-year).” [2] Interestingly, “Women accounted for fewer than one in ten of the detections, while the share of reported minors fell slightly to around 9 percent of all detections. Separately, almost 13 million Ukrainian refugees were counted on entry at the EU’s external land borders from Ukraine and Moldova between 24 February 2022 until the end of the year, which are not included in these figures. In the same period, 10 million Ukrainian nationals were reported on exit at the same border sections.” [1]
Needless to say, the number of new asylum requests, too, increased dramatically as European Union member states, Norway, and Switzerland received close to one million such requests, as recorder by the EU Agency for Asylum (EUAA), with nationalities including immigrants from Belarus, Burundi, Congo, Cuba, Egypt, India, Moldova, Morocco, Peru, Tunisia, and Yemen. Those figures, however, do not include the Ukrainian refugees that entered European Union territory in their attempt to flee Russia’s aggression under the Temporary Protection Directive.
Along similar lines, some 500,000 foreign nationals are ordered to return to their country of origin every year for entering or residing illegally in European Union member states, nevertheless, less than a third of them actually make it back to their home country or the country of departure before entering the European Union. In 2022, FRONTEX carried out no more than 25,000 returns, with Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson stating that “Frontex is sending empty planes to countries of origin that are open to taking back their citizens. Recently, a plane was sent back to Bangladesh with only eight passengers on board.” [2] To facilitate the return of illegal entries, an EU Return Coordinator was appointed in 2022 “to establish a common operational strategy on returns and increase cooperation between member States and Frontex.” [2] Considering that some three million people settled legally in one of the twenty-seven European Union members states in 2022, the issues of asylum seekers and return of illegal immigrants dominate the EU’s agenda on migration.
Unfortunately, around 2,500 people lost their lives in their attempt to reach the European Union area.
Christos Kassimeris, PhD
Professor Christos Kassimeris heads the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at European University Cyprus and is coordinator of the BA in European Politics and Communication. Before joining European University Cyprus, he was teaching European Integration Politics and International Relations of the Mediterranean for three years at the University of Reading. He is the author of European Football in Black and White: Tackling Racism in Football (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2007), Greece and the American Embrace: Greek Foreign Policy Towards Turkey, the US and the Western Alliance (I.B. Tauris Academic Studies, 2009) and Football Comes Home: Symbolic Identities in European Football (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers 2010), editor of Anti-racism in European Football: Fair Play for All (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2009), The Marketing of War in the Age of Neo-Militarism (Routledge, 2011) and The Politics of Education: Challenging Multiculturalism (Routledge, 2011), and has several publications in political science journals. He is also Visiting Research Fellow at the University of De Montfort.
References:
- Frontex, EU’s external borders in 2022: Number of irregular border crossings highest since 2016, 13 January 2023.
- Euronews, Here are the key numbers about migration to the EU you need to know, 14 March 2023.
Banner image by Christian Lue on Unsplash
