http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304908304579561341054849918
Number of Migrants Trying to Reach Europe Illegally Rose Sharply in 2013
Italy Bears Brunt of Increase as Figures Triple Since 2013
By Matina Stevis
Matina.Stevis_at_wsj.com
May 14, 2014 5:15 a.m. ET
Interactive Graphic: The number of migrants detected arriving in the EU
without documentation jumped by 48% to 107,365 in 2013, according to
official figures. The most popular route was the sea crossing from Libya to
Italy, with the highest number fleeing war in Syria.
BRUSSELS--The number of migrants and refugees found crossing illegally into
the European Union rose sharply in 2013, with Syrians and Eritreans
arriving in their tens of thousands according to official figures released
Wednesday.
A report compiled by Frontex, the European Union border agency, showed that
Italy bore the brunt of the rise as the number of migrants reaching its
shores, mainly from Libya, tripled from 2012 to over 40,000. In total,
107,365 undocumented migrants--people attempting to cross into the EU
without a visa or other permit--were detected at EU borders in 2013, a 48%
increase from the year before.
Enlarge Image Close
Migrants aboard the Italian frigate "Grecale" as it arrives at the Catania
harbor in Sicily on Tuesday. Italian authorities concluded their
search-and-rescue operations after recovering 17 bodies and 206 survivors.
Reuters
The report was published a day after Italian authorities gave up hope of
rescuing more migrants from the latest in a series of recent migrant-boat
shipwrecks in the waters between Italy and Libya. They concluded their
search-and-rescue operations on Tuesday after recovering 17 bodies and 206
survivors.
The Frontex findings, which are the result of a year-long coordination with
all 28 EU member states, highlight the pressure the bloc is coming under as
war, oppression and financial hardship displace thousands in its
neighborhood.
A bitter debate is escalating among EU governments on how to tackle the
rising tide of migrants from Africa, the Middle East and Asia ahead of an
EU leaders' meeting to discuss this in late June. Richer northern European
countries are asking governments in the south to step up border control to
keep migrants at bay; southern states are requesting more financial help to
manage the EU's external borders and a better-functioning joint migration
system to distribute migrants more evenly to EU countries.
The issue is also important for the outcome of EU parliamentary elections
later this month, where migration has emerged as a core concern for many
European voters.
Frontex sounded the alarm for 2014, noting that the Syrian war and
lawlessness in Libya, where much of the migrant-smuggling takes place, were
set to push numbers even higher. Italy says it has rescued some 26,000
undocumented migrants since the beginning of 2014; a trend that, if
sustained over the summer months when seas are calmer, could see the
country's annual intake reach record numbers.
Fewer migrants attempted to enter Europe from the Eastern Mediterranean in
2013, largely because of Greek authorities' policies to seal off the
country's northern land border with Turkey, the report said. But shutting
off that border drove more migrants to cross the Aegean Sea between Greece
and Turkey, a riskier passage where hundreds have perished over the last
few months.
EU member states did worse at apprehending illegal-migrant smugglers in
2013: 6,902 people thought to have facilitated undocumented migrants were
detected by national authorities, 11% fewer than the year before. Those
included migrant-boat captains, passport-forgers and other criminals
helping migrants cross into the EU for a fee. The industry is lucrative:
migrants crossing in from North Africa pay facilitators around $5,000 per
person, while those arriving from Turkey can pay up to $15,000 if their
final destination is a northern European country, according to migrants and
knowledgeable officials.
Opinions are diverging sharply within Europe on how to better manage
illegal migration. Conservatives argue that EU external borders, especially
in the South, need to be reinforced to keep people out--an approach dubbed
"Fortress Europe." But human-rights groups and liberals advocate creating
more legal routes to migration and are calling on EU countries to accept
more refugees.
EU countries took in about 50,000 refugees from war-torn Syria in 2013,
compared with about 22,700 in 2012, with most going to Germany and Sweden.
The number, while large by historical EU standards, was a drop in the ocean
of the nearly 3 million displaced Syrians at refugee camps in Jordan,
Lebanon and Turkey.
Write to Matina Stevis at matina.stevis_at_wsj.com
Received on Wed May 14 2014 - 08:18:06 EDT