In the first nine months of this year, 166,000 people attempted to enter the EU irregularly, 42% fewer than in the same period last year, the EU border protection agency Frontex said in Warsaw on Tuesday.
However, the number of attempted unauthorized entries via the EU’s eastern land border, specifically the route through Belarus to Poland and Lithuania, has significantly increased: Some 13,200 such attempts were recorded, an increase of 192%, Frontex said.
In light of this, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced on Saturday plans to temporarily suspend the right to asylum.
The fight against illegal migration is also set to be a topic at the summit of EU leaders on Thursday in Brussels.
In contrast, there was a significant decline in the number of irregular unauthorized entries via the western Balkan route, with just under 17,000, a decrease of 79%.
A similar trend was observed on the central Mediterranean route, from Libya and Tunisia via Sicily and Malta, with over 47,700 attempts, a decrease of 64%.
On the West Africa route across the Atlantic – from Morocco, Senegal and Western Sahara to the Canary Islands – the number of entry attempts doubled to over 30,600 compared to the same period last year, Frontex said.
