In 2022, around 330 000 irregular border crossings were detected at EU’s external border, according to preliminary calculations, the European border surveillance agency Frontex informs.

According to the quoted source, this is the highest number since 2016 and an increase of 64% from the previous year.

After the pandemic-induced low in 2020, this was the second year in a row with a steep rise in the number of irregular entries. The Western Balkan route accounted for nearly half of the total. Syrians, Afghans and Tunisians together accounted for 47% of the detections in 2022. The number of Syrians roughly doubled to 94 000.

Women accounted for fewer than one in ten of the detections, while the share of reported minors fell slightly to around 9 percent of all detections.

Separately, almost 13 million Ukrainian refugees were counted on entry at the EU’s external land borders from Ukraine and Moldova between 24 February 2022 until the end of the year, which are not included in these figures.

In the same period, 10 million Ukrainian nationals were reported on exit at the same border sections.

Frontex