Influx of illegal immigrants declines in EU (Roundup)

Oct 28, 2009, 15:42 GMT

Madrid - Illegal border crossings into the European Union declined by 20 per cent in the first half of 2009, the EU border control agency Frontex said Wednesday.

Speaking in Spain's capital Madrid, Frontex executive director Gil Arias attributed the drop to stronger border controls and the economic crisis.

EU leaders meeting for a summit in Brussels on Thursday are expected to debate the problems caused by illegal immigration in the Mediterranean.

Among other responses, they are set to call for member states to give the Warsaw-based Frontex more resources, and to urge it to work more closely with countries in Africa and the Middle East that are on major migration routes.

The number of people entering the EU illegally went down 33 per cent in Italy, Malta and Spain's Canary Islands in the first six months of 2009, according to figures given by Arias.

For the first time, more migrant boats are being prevented from leaving Africa than were arriving in the Canary Islands, Arias said.

About 2,280 migrants have reached the Canaries so far this year, while 2,360 have been stopped in or off Africa. Nearly 8,000 migrants landed in the islands in 2008.

Arias praised the EU's cooperation with Senegal, from where only two migrant boats had taken off over the past nine months.

In the Greek islands, however, the number of people entering illegally went up by nearly a half and in Hungary and Serbia by as much as 175 per cent in the first six months of 2009.

Asylum requests to the EU also increased 11 per cent.

The EU countries receiving the most undocumented migrants were Greece, which took in 70 per cent, Italy, with 13 per cent, and Spain, with about 8 per cent, according to figures given by Arias.