EU border agency reports lowest migrant arrivals since crisis began

The EU’s border and coastguard agency, Frontex, has released its annual Risk Analysis report showing that 2017 saw the lowest number of irregular migrant arrivals into the EU in four years.

Arrivals dropped to 204,700, registering a 60% fall in comparison to the 511,000 irregular arrivals recorded in 2016.

The drop was especially observed on the Eastern Mediterranean migratory route, which connects Turkey to Greece, and the Central Mediterranean route connecting Libya to Italy. On the eastern route, migrant arrivals went down drastically after the EU made a deal in 2016 to return migrants arriving in Greece to Turkey.

The end of 2017 also saw thousands of African migrants being voluntarily repatriated from Libya after reports of extreme abuse and slavery in the North African country shocked the world, compelling many African nations to cooperate with UN agencies to repatriate their citizens.

Talking to Italian news agency ANSA in connection with the report, Frontex director Fabrice Leggeri said that overall 150,000 migrants were repatriated from the EU in 2017.

Leggeri added that “arrivals have fallen dramatically” so far in 2018 and that there were only 300 arrivals to Italy in the first two weeks of February.

Frontex Executive Director Fabrice Leggeri briefs the media on the findings of the EU border agency’s Risk Analysis Report for 2018, in Brussels, Belgium February 20, 2018.