Crackdown slashes irregular crossings to EU in 2024: Frontex

WARSAW: Detections of irregular migrants entering the European Union fell in 2024 to the lowest level recorded since 2021 due to a crackdown on traffickers, the bloc´s border agency said on Tuesday.

The latest data from the Frontex agency were welcomed by Italy´s far-right prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, and comes as anti-immigration parties have been performing strongly in elections around Europe.

The Warsaw-based agency said last year´s preliminary data revealed a 38-percent drop in land and sea crossings from the previous year.

It said in a statement the numbers were at “the lowest level since 2021, when migration was still affected by the Covid pandemic”.

Frontex said the decrease in undocumented asylum seekers was mainly driven by a plunge in arrivals through routes in the Central Mediterranean -- largely via Libya -- and Western Balkans regions.

“Intensified EU and partner cooperation against smuggling networks has significantly reduced crossings at Europe´s external borders,” Frontex said.

Meloni called it “a result of Italy´s action, just as the overall reduction in irregular entries into the European Union, by other routes as well (...) is the result of the hard work that our government has undertaken in recent years”.

She expressed her “pride” in what she hailed as “good news of the day”. Overall, in 2024 the agency saw over 239,000 irregular entries into the EU.