Abstract

About five routes have been identified as channels of illegal crossings: The Central Mediterranean route (CMR), the Western Mediterranean route (WMR), the Eastern Mediterranean route (EMR), the West African route and the Western Balkan route. The CMR is the most dangerous and at the same time commonly used route to transit into Europe with Italy and Malta as first countries of entry. It is estimated that 1 in 10 migrants who attempt crossing via the CMR is likely to die or missing on their way. Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco and Libya were departure countries for irregular migration to Europe via the CMR. The WMR connects Morocco to Spain and the two Spanish enclaves of Melilla and Ceuta. Nationals from Morocco, Guinea, Mali and Algeria were more detected on the WMR. The West African route is used by irregular West African migrants to transit to Canary Islands (an autonomous community of Spain). Cities of Goa (Mali) and Agadez (Niger) are used as main hub of irregular migration to link the WMR and the CMR respectively. The EMR is used by unauthorized migrants to travel into the EU through Turkey with Greece as the first country of entry. It was the “migration and refugee crisis” along this route in 2015 that put the whole of Europe under alert. However, irregular migration along the EMR has substantially declined.

Highlights

  • The upsurge in the number of irregular migrants crossing to Europe through sea and land borders reached an inundation point in 2015

  • Recent data obtained between September and December 2018 suggested that migration through the Libya has fallen by 87% and Tunisia is fast replacing Libya as the key country of departure of irregular migrants detected along the Central Mediterranean route (CMR) (Frontex, 2019)

  • The West African route is used by irregular West African migrants to transit to Canary Islands

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Summary

Introduction

The upsurge in the number of irregular migrants crossing to Europe through sea and land borders reached an inundation point in 2015. Illegal sea crossings declined from more than one million in 2015 to about 365,000 in 2016, and 176,000 in 2017 (News European Parliament, 2017) These account for an almost 83% decrease from 2015 to 2017. More recent figure provided by Frontex (2019) revealed that irregular sea crossing had fallen to 150,114 by 2018, which is about 92% decrease from the 2015 figure. This downward flow shows a tremendous and unimaginable impact of the ‘bulwark Europe’ policies of the EU (Rosenthal, Bahl, & Worm, 2017) and its Third World partners in reducing irregular migration into Europe. From any normative perspective, more knowledge is needed for better understanding of the dynamics in the use of old routes, and new and emerging routes

Migration Routes to the EU
The Central Mediterranean Route
The Western Mediterranean Route
The Western African Route
The Eastern Mediterranean Route
The Western Balkan Route
Western and Central African Routes
Findings
Eastern African Routes
Full Text
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