Frontex: Migrant crossings via central Med soaring

Climate change is pushing more people to move to the European Union than conflict is, and the EU border agency Frontex has warned that this could result in record numbers of individuals illegally entering the bloc.

Frontex documented 330,000 irregular entries across all routes last year, the largest amount since 2016, and as a result, rhetoric against immigration has intensified in EU nations including Denmark, the Netherlands and Austria.

The arrival of at least 1 million refugees in Europe in 2015, the majority of whom were fleeing the Syrian war, prompted the EU to bolster asylum regulations and secure its external borders.

So far this year, Frontex said, the number of people trying to reach European shores from North Africa via routes heading to Italy has increased by 292% between January and April compared to the same period in 2022, reaching 42,200.