Since the beginning of this year, the number of migrants arriving along the western and central Mediterranean routes has decreased in Europe, while the number of arrivals along the eastern route has increased markedly.
This was announced on Friday, December 13 by the European Union External Border Security Agency, Frontex.
The inflow to Europe by major migration routes in November was 25 per cent lower than in October. The total inflow of migrants has decreased by 10 per cent over the past eleven months, from 14,400 to 124,600.
Migrant inflows across the Aegean Sea decreased by 20 per cent in November, but this was mainly due to weather conditions. In the first 11 months of this year, more than 74,100 people travelled the eastern Mediterranean route, an increase of 42 per cent over 2018.
In November, more than 1,900 times the border was crossed illegally in the western Balkans. In the first eleven months of 2019, this was more than 10,600 times, more than double the number of times a year earlier.
Approximately 1,200 migrants arrived along the central Mediterranean route, mainly to Italy, almost half the number of migrants arriving in October. In the first eleven months of this year, the number was about 13,200, almost half of what it was in 2018. On the route of the western Mediterranean – mainly in Spain – from 950 people, in November there were 80 percent fewer migrants than in October. Looking back at 2019, there were about 22,000, less than half of them in the same period last year.