At a glance
Infographic
February 2017
Recent migration flows to the EU
Detections of illegal border crossings in the EU (January – November 2016)
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
1 278
Vietnam
Afghanistan
Ukraine
Western Balkans
121 609
Not specified
Afghanistan
Pakistan
Eastern Mediterranean
180 718
Syria
Afghanistan
Iraq
Circular route (Albania - Greece)
4 664
Western Africa
583
Western Mediterranean
Côte d’Ivoire
Guinea
Morocco
8 797
Guinea
Côte d’Ivoire
Algeria
Albania
Afghanistan
Syria
Central Mediterranean
172 898
Nigeria
Eritrea
Guinea
The map shows the routes of illegal entries into the EU during the period January to November 2016. For
each route, the box shows the number of entries and the top three nationalities of migrants.
Monthly average number of detections of illegal border crossings in the EU
The boxes below show the recent changes in numbers on the most frequent routes: Eastern Mediterranean,
Central Mediterranean and Western Balkans. The other routes are not shown as the figures do not indicate
major changes in the numbers of illegal entries.
Eastern Mediterranean
2013 2 067
2014 4 236
2015
2016
16 429
Central Mediterranean
73 782
2013 3775
2014
14 222
2015
12 829
2016
15 718
EPRS | European Parliamentary Research Service
Author: Giulio Sabbati
Members’ Research Service
PE 595.918
Western Balkans
2013 1 663
2014 3 613
2015
2016
11 055
63 670
EPRS
Recent migration flows to the EU
Asylum applicants in the EU-28
In 1 000 applicants
900
431
335
309
259
0
225
300
264
627
600
1 205
1200
1 323
1500
The bar chart shows the number of asylum applicants in the European Union. ‘Applicants’ refers to anyone
applying for asylum or similar protection – as defined in the Qualification Directive – or included in an
application as a family member. The table shows the breakdown of those Member States which together
represent more than 90% of the total requests for asylum in 2016.
EU28
2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
In 1 000
applicants
DE
IT
FR
AT
EL
UK
HU
SE
BG
Others
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
77
17
61
17
10
29
2
44
1
76
127
27
66
18
8
31
19
54
7
75
203
65
64
28
9
33
43
81
11
90
477
84
76
88
13
40
177
162
20
185
745
112
76
39
37
35
29
27
19
85
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 year 2016. The EU average is
2 369 applicants per million inhabitants. The bar below the map shows the range of applicants within the
Asylum
applicants per million inhabitant
Member
States.
(2015)
The horizontal bar chart shows the top 20 countries of origin for the year 2016. The value in parenthesis
represents changes with respect to 2015; a positive value shows an increase, and a negative a decrease
(e.g. there was a decrease of 40 000 applicants from Syria in 2016).
Top 20 countries of origin
Applicants per million inhabitant
More than 3 000
2 000 - 3 000
1 000 - 1 999
200 - 999
Less than 200
23
9 177
Syria
Syria
Afghanistan
Afghanistan
IraqIraq
Pakistan
Pakistan
Nigeria
Nigeria
IranIran
Eritrea
Eritrea
Albania
Albania
Russia
Russia
Somalia
Somalia
Bangladesh
Bangladesh
Gambia,
The
Gambia
Guinea
Guinea
Serbia
Serbia
Ukraine
Ukraine
Kosovo
Kosovo*
Morocco
Morocco
Algeria
Algeria
Turkey
Turkey
Côte d'Ivoire
Côte
d'Ivoire
329 (-40)
(1)
126
(1)
47
(-1)
44
(13)
40
(14)
33
(-1)
30
(-38)
26
(4)
19
(-2)
16
(-3)
15
(3)
13
(7)
13
(-17)
11
(-11)
11
(-61)
11
(5)
11
(2)
11
(6)
In 1 000 applicants (5)
11
182
Previous editions of this Infographic were issued in September 2015 (PE 565.905) and in 0April50 2016
(PE 580.893)
100 150 200 250 300 350
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.
Data source: Frontex and Eurostat January 2017. Data on asylum for 2016 are not fully complete, as some Member States have not yet reported the number of
applicants for the month of December 2016. Therefore the final number reported could be higher, once more data become available.
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, 2017.
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