At a glance
Infographic
September 2015
Recent migration flows to the EU
Detections of illegal border crossings in the EU (January – June 2015)
Frontex, the EU border surveillance agency, collects data on detections by national border-control authorities
of illegal crossings of the EU’s external borders. External borders are those between Member States and
third countries as well as between Schengen Associated Countries (Norway, Iceland and Switzerland) and
third countries.
Eastern Border
717
Vietnam
Afghanistan
Georgia
Western Balkans
102 342
Afghanistan
Syria
Kosovo
Eastern Mediterranean
132 240
Syria
Afghanistan
Pakistan
Circular route (Albania - Greece)
4 634
Western Africa
150
Western Mediterranean
Guinea
Morocco
Gambia
6 698
Albania
Georgia
FYR of
Macedonia
Central Mediterranean
Syria
Guinea
Côte d’Ivoire
91 302
Eritrea
Nigeria
Sub-Saharan
Africa
The map shows the routes of illegal entries into the EU during the first six months of 2015. For each route,
the box shows the number of entries and the top three nationalities of migrants.
The boxes below show the recent changes in numbers on the most frequent routes: Eastern Mediterranean,
Western Balkans and Central Mediterranean. The other routes are not shown as the figures do not indicate
major changes in the numbers of illegal entries.
Monthly average number of detections of illegal border crossings in the EU
Eastern Mediterranean
2013 2 067
2014
4 236
2015
22 040
2013
2014
2015
Western Balkans
1 663
3 613
17 057
EPRS | European Parliamentary Research Service
Author: Giulio Sabbati
Members’ Research Service
PE 565.905
Central Mediterranean
2013
2014
2015
3 775
14 222
15 217
EPRS
Recent migration flows to the EU
Asylum applicants in the EU28
500000
400000
300000
200000
100000
0
EU28
The bar chart shows the number of asylum applicants in the European
In 1 000 applicants
417
384
Union. ‘Applicants’ refers to anyone applying for asylum or similar protection – as defined in the Qualification Directive – or included in an
242
240
application as a family member. Data are divided by six month period.
191
The table shows the breakdown of the ten Member States which together rep2013 2013 2014 2014 2015
1 000
2013
2014
2015
resent 90% In
Jan-Jun Jul-Dec Jan-Jun Jul-Dec Jan-Jun
applicants Jan-Jun
Jul-Dec
Jan-Jun
Jul-Dec
Jan-Jun
of the total DE
49
78
78
125
172
requests for asylum in the first six months of HU
12
7
5
37
67
33
33
32
32
32
2015. The values for 2015 will be higher once FR
IT
10
16
25
40
31
data for all Member States are available. The
SE
19
35
32
49
29
following countries have not yet reported num- AT
8
9
9
19
21
bers for June 2015: Czech Republic, Denmark, UK
15
16
15
17
12
BE
11
10
10
13
12
Ireland, Spain, Croatia, Cyprus, Austria, PortuOthers
34
35
36
52
42
gal and Romania.
Asylum applicants per million inhabitant
(Jan - Jun 2015)
The map shows the relative weight of the number of applicants per million inhabitants in the ‘country of
arrival’ (the EU Member State in which asylum has been requested) for the period January to June 2015.
The EU average is 823 applicants per million inhabitants.
More than 2 000
1 000 - 1 999
100 - 999
Less than 100
Applicants per million inhabitant
The horizontal bar chart shows the top 15 countries of origin for the period January to June 2015. The value in parenthesis represents changes with respect to the same period
of 2014; positive value shows an increase, negative a decrease (e.g.
Top 15 countries of origin
there was an
SyriaSyria
71 (31)
increase of
Kosovo
Kosovo
63 (57)
Afghanistan
Afghanistan
39
(23)
31 000 apAlbania
Albania
26
(18)
plicants from
Iraq Iraq
21
(15)
Syria in the
Serbia
Serbia
17
(6)
first half of
Pakistan
Pakistan 14
(4)
2015 comEritrea
Eritrea 12
(-2)
Nigeria
pared to the
Nigeria 11
(3)
Ukraine
Ukraine
10
(7)
same period
Somalia
Somalia
9
(1)
in 2014).
Russia
Russia
FYROM
FYR of Macedonia
Gambia
Gambia
Bangladesh
Bangladesh
0
9
7
6
6
(-2)
(3)
(1)
In 1 000 applicants (2)
10000 20000 30000 40000 50000 60000 70000 80000
Notes. Asylum is a form of international protection given by a state on its territory to someone who is threatened by persecution on grounds of race,
religion, nationality, membership of a particular group or political opinion in their country of origin or residence. In the EU, this consists of refugee
status as defined in the UN Geneva Refugee Convention, plus subsidiary protection for persons who do not qualify as refugees but in respect of whom
substantial grounds exist that the person concerned, if returned to their country of origin, would face a real risk of suffering serious harm as defined
in the Qualification Directive.
Not all those who cross the EU’s external borders illegally will seek asylum, or indeed qualify under the definition above. They thus form part of the
broader category of ‘irregular immigrants’, i.e. those who do not fulfil, or no longer fulfil, the conditions of entry as set out in Article 5 of the Schengen
Borders Code or other conditions for entry, stay or residence in that Member State.
Disclaimer and Copyright. The content of this document is the sole responsibility of the author and any opinions expressed therein do not necessarily represent the
official position of the European Parliament. It is addressed to the Members and staff of the EP for their parliamentary work. Reproduction and translation for noncommercial purposes are authorised, provided the source is acknowledged and the European Parliament is given prior notice and sent a copy. © European Union, 2015.
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