The European Border and Coast Guard Agency, also known as Frontex, today released its annual data on illegal migration to the European Union in 2022.
According to Frontex, 330,000 attempts were made to enter the European bloc illegally during the past year, and that figure does not include migrants who applied for asylum legally or refugees who came from Ukraine.
Nearly half of the 330,000 illegal crossings into EU were made by Afghans, Syrians, and Tunisians, comprising 47% of all unlawful crossing attempts.
More than 80% of the attempts were made by adult men, with women accounting for fewer than one in ten detections and children accounting for 9%.
More attempts to enter the EU illegally were made in 2022 than in any year since 2016, Warsaw-based agency added.
In 2016, Frontex counted almost 2 million illegal crossing attempts.
With the Syrian Civil War raging at that time, the European Union saw a massive influx of mostly Middle Eastern illegal migrants. EU member states are still struggling to accommodate and integrate those arrivals to this day.
Aside from creating huge problems for the Europeans with housing and policing the hordes of the illicit arrivals, the 2015-2016 surge established a regular passage for future illegal migrants, giving a massive boost to human trafficking industry and forcing Brussels to consider strengthening the bloc’s external borders.
Frontex’s numbers do not include those who legally sought asylum in the European Union in 2022. While the bloc has not yet published its annual asylum application figures, almost 790,000 applications were made in the first ten months of 2022, EU Asylum Agency chief Nina Gregori said in December. Around 37% of these applications were accepted, based on October data.
Also, almost eight million Ukrainian refugees, escaping the brutal and unprovoked war of aggression launched by Russia against Ukraine, have fled to the EU and other European states since February, when Russia invaded the neighbor country.
About five million Ukrainian refugees have been granted temporary or permanent protection, according to United Nations (UN) data.
The use of the word ‘swarmed’ is incredibly offensive and prejudiced and obviously used in your heading to be provocative. If you’re going to write about the issue come to the table with solutions not salacious wording that further divides.