The debate on migration and asylum in the EU did not stop growing last year. And it did so almost at the same rate at which the number of irregular arrivals fell. In 2024, 239,000 people entered in this way, 39% less than in the previous year, according to data released this Tuesday by Frontex, the European agency for controlling external borders in the EU. This is the lowest figure since 2021, a year still marked by the pandemic and the major restrictions on movements it imposed around the world.
The drop in arrivals by sea and land has occurred on almost all routes, except the Canary Islands. On the other hand, almost 47,000 people have arrived in the Spanish archipelago in 12 months, an increase of 18% compared to 2023, which raises the figure to levels not recorded since there were figures, 2009.
The collapse in irregular arrivals throughout the EU is mainly due to the lower departure of people from Tunisia and Libya, countries that serve as a platform of origin on the central Mediterranean route, the most used in 2023. The drop has been of such magnitude that the entries through Italy and the nearby islands (Malta, Lampedusa, Sicily, Corsica) that occurred the previous year have been cut by more than half.
Entries through the Western Balkans also dropped significantly, another route that has at other times felt the pressure of irregular arrivals. Through this route, which mainly affects Croatia and Hungary, only 21,520 people have arrived in 2024, 78% less than the previous year.
Both collapses have made the eastern Mediterranean the most used gateway last year. The increase was not very significant, 14%, but it was enough to become the busiest route with 69,436 arrivals.
Figures published by Frontex also show how Russia and Belarus are increasingly using irregular migration to destabilize their western neighbors. Last year, arrivals at the borders of Poland, Finland and the three Baltic republics (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) tripled: a total of 17,000.
This latest increase has been one of those that has given arguments to those who mix the immigration debate with the security debate. Turning this phenomenon into a tool of hybrid warfare by hostile neighbors such as Russia and Belarus, the affected countries, especially Poland, have announced steps to tighten the right to refuge and asylum in their States. For example, the Polish Prime Minister, Donald Tusk, even warned that he was going to suspend the granting of refugee status and took the situation to the European Council, where the rest of the leaders accepted that this situation has a large security component.
However, the migration debate that has consumed the most energy over the past year has been whether deportation camps had to be opened in third countries so that asylum seekers could wait for their applications to be processed. In fact, in the last letter that the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, sent to the heads of State and Government before the December summit, she was open to studying the idea to find out the legal and economic fit. that it could have, despite the fact that in Italy it has so far been a resounding failure.
