Border agency: illegal entries into EU up 82% this year

The number of detected illegal entries into the European Union in the first five months of 2022 was more than 86,000, or 82% more than in the same period in 2021, the agency monitoring the EU's external borders said Monday.

Crossings in May alone numbered some 23,500 — 75% up from May last year, according to preliminary data released by Frontex.

The European Border and Coast Guard Agency said that the figure did not include refugees from almost four months of war in Ukraine, whose number it pegged at some 5.5 million. They are authorised to enter the EU.

The routes taken most often by irregular migrants are through the Western Balkans, which accounted for almost 41,000 crossings, mostly migrants from Syria and Afghanistan, and through the Central and Eastern Mediterranean, where Egyptians, Bangladeshis, Tunisians, Nigerians and Congolese are common.

The figures show the number of entries and do not take account of the fact that sometimes the same person makes multiple attempts.