(Reuters) Irregular immigration into the European Union rose a tenth in the first half of 2023 compared to a year ago, the bloc’s border agency said on Monday, with Mediterranean routes accounting for most of the arrivals.
Frontex reported 132,370 attempts to get into the EU outside of regular border crossings from the start of the year until the end of June, saying that was 10% more than the same period in 2022.
It said central Mediterranean crossings were up more than a third and accounted for half the overall number as arrivals from Tunisia to Italy grew. Traffic on all the other routes into the EU was down from the first half of 2022.
