A Frontex statement said that with about 42,200 entry operations through the aforementioned region during the first four months of 2023, “the highest level since Frontex began collecting data for the year 2009” is recorded.
The European Border Monitoring Agency (Frontex) reported on Friday that the number of illegal entries into the European Union through the central region of the Mediterranean increased between January and April by nearly 300 percent compared to the same period in 2022.
A Frontex statement, received by AFP, said that with about 42,200 entry operations through the aforementioned region during the first four months of 2023, “the highest level since Frontex began collecting data for the year 2009” is recorded.
“I’ve never seen that in the past,” agency chief Hans Leytens told AFP, adding that crossings using this route accounted for just over half of the 80,700 unregulated entry into the EU this year.
“We now see an increase of 1,100 percent” in the crossing of migrants “especially from Tunisia, compared to last year,” he added.
The significant increase, from Littens’ point of view, is related to the change in the way people smugglers work and the decrease in the cost of a single crossing.
