Recent migration flows to the EU

BRIEFING Infographic

Recent migration flows to the EU Detections of illegal border crossings in the EU (2017) Frontex, the EU border surveillance agency, collects data on detections by national border-control authorities of illegal crossings of the EU’s external borders. External borders are those between Member States and third countries, as well as between Schengen Associated Countries (Norway, Iceland and Switzerland) and third countries.

Detec ons of illegal border crossings in the EU in 2017

(511 047 in 2016)

204 734

All routes

Western Balkans

12 179

Casablanca Western Wester ern n 42 Africa 421

42 319

Central Mediterranean 118 962

Oujda

Algiers Oran Ouargla

360 151 2016

Western Africa: 0.2% Circular Route: 3% Western Mediterranean Western Balkans

114 91 2017 Other: 0.6% Central Mediterranean

6% 11%

58%

204 734 21%

Lampedusa Tripoli Alexandria Cairo Sebha

Eastern Mediterranean

Eastern Mediterranean Monthly average (in 1 000)

Agadez

Dakar

6-monthly data (in 1 000)

1 594

91 192 229 2014 2015

Eastern Mediterranean Western Mediterranean 23 143

Migratory routes

74

15 4 4 2014 2015 2016 2017

Central Mediterranean Addis Ababa Monthly average (in 1 000)

Lagos Accra

14

(in 1 000) Nairobi

Syria, 19 Nigeria, 18 Côte d'Ivoire, 13

Guinea, 13

Bangladesh, 9 Albania, 7

Morocco, 11

Gambia, 8

Algeria, 7

Iraq, 10

Mali, 8

Eritrea, 7

Pakistan, 10

Monthly average (in 1 000)

Others, 48

Afghanistan, 8 Tunisia, 7

15

10

2014 2015 2016 2017

Western Balkans

Top 15 migrant na onali es (2017)

13

64 11 4 1 2014 2015 2016 2017

Western Mediterranean Monthly average (in 1 000)

1 2 1 1 2014 2015 2016 2017

The map shows the different routes and the number of illegal entries into the EU in 2017 for each route. The line chart shows the number of illegal crossings at six-monthly intervals, and the pie chart the share that each route represents in the total. The four boxes below denote the monthly average number of illegal border crossings for each route. The table shows the top 15 nationalities of migrants.

EPRS | European Parliamentary Research Service Author: Giulio Sabbati Members’ Research Service PE 621.862 - May 2018

EPRS | European Parliamentary Research Service

Missing migrants along the Mediterranean migratory routes The International Organization for Migration (IOM) carries out the Missing Migrants project, aimed at compiling data on migrants who have died or gone missing, either at the external borders or in the migration process. It excludes, for instance, deaths in refugee camps or during return to a migrant’s homeland, or as a result of labour exploitation. Various sources of data are used such as relevant national authorities, IOM field missions, direct reporting by IOM and other organisations receiving survivors, and media reports. IOM and UNHCR make sure that data are consistent.

3 139 Deaths of migrants recorded in the Mediterranean in 2017

224 Western Mediterranean

62 Eastern Mediterranean LEGEND Missing migrants Number of dead 34 - 74

2 853

17 - 33

Central Mediterranean

6 - 16 1-5

The map shows the number of deaths on the Mediterranean routes in 2017. The bar chart below on the left compares the number of deaths for the last four years. The line chart shows the evolution of the phenomenon by six-monthly periods.

The three boxes on the right represent the monthly average number of migrant deaths on the three Mediterranean routes in the last five years, as well as an estimated gender breakdown.

Western Mediterranean

5 143 3 283

F

3 793

3 139

Monthly average

5 9 11 19 18 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018

Central Mediterranean 382 264 240 238 2014

2015

2016

2017

6-monthly data (in 1 000)

0.7 2.5 1.8

1.9 2.9 2.2

Monthly average

2015

2016

2017

32 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018

Eastern Mediterranean

2.3 0.9

Monthly average

2014

Gender

2018

67 36 5 5 2 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018

M Gender

F M Gender

M

F

It can be seen, for instance, that in 2015, despite the increase in migrant flows in the Eastern Mediterranean (see previous page), the Central Mediterranean remained the more deadly route, with nearly two deaths for every 100 travellers.

Notes. Data on fatalities are challenging to collect because reporting on deaths is poor, countless bodies are never found and the involvement of criminal actors means there may be fear among survivors to report deaths, and some deaths may be actively covered up. For instance, in 2015, over 50% of deaths recorded by the Missing Migrants Project refer to migrants who are presumed dead and whose bodies have not been found (mainly at sea). The sex of the deceased is unknown in over 80% of cases.

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EPRS | European Parliamentary Research Service

Asylum applicants in the EU-28 The bar chart shows the number of asylum applicants in the European Union. ‘Applicants’ refers to anyone applying for asylum or similar protection – as defined in the Qualification Directive – or included in an application as a family member. The table shows the breakdown of those Member States which together represent more than 90% of the total requests for asylum in 2017.

In 1 000 applicants

00000

00000

1 323

In 1 000 applicants

1 261

00000

00000

0000 0

706

627 225

264 260 309

335

431

2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017

DE IT FR EL UK ES SE AT

BE Others

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

53 40 57 9 27 3 30 14 32 43

77 17 61 10 29 3 44 17 28 49

127 27 66 8 31 4 54 18 21 75

203 65 64 9 33 6 81 28 23 116

477 84 76 13 40 15 162 88 45 323

745 123 84 51 40 16 29 42 18 113

223 129 99 59 34 31 26 25 18 62

The map shows the relative weight of the number of applicants per million inhabitants in the ‘country of arrival’ (the EU Member State in which asylum has been requested) for the year 2017. The EU average is 1 380 applicants per million inhabitants. The bar below the map shows the range of applicants within the Member States. The Asylum applicants per million inhabitant horizontal bar chart shows the top 20 countries of origin for the year 2017. The value in parenthesis represents (2015) changes with respect to 2016; a positive value shows an increase, negative a decrease (e.g. there was a decrease of 234 000 applicants from Syria in 2017 compared to the year 2016).

Top 20 countries of origin

Applicants per million inhabitants More than 4 000 2 000 - 4 000 700 - 1 999 200 - 699 Less than 200

200 700 29

2 000

4 000 5 447

SyriaSyria IraqIraq Afghanistan Afghanistan Nigeria Nigeria Pakistan Pakistan Albania Albania Eritrea Eritrea Bangladesh Bangladesh IranIran Guinea Guinea Russia Russia Turkey Turkey Côted'Ivoire d'Ivoire Côte Somalia Somalia Gambia,Gambia The Venezuela Venezuela Georgia Georgia MaliMali Senegal Senegal Algeria Algeria

105.0 (-234) 51.7 (-78) 47.9 (-139) 41.0 (-7) 31.8 (-18) 25.6 (-7) 25.1 (-9) 20.8 (4) 18.5 (-23) 18.3 (4) 17.0 (-11) 15.6 (5) 14.3 (3) 14.1 (-6) 12.9 (-3) 12.0 (7) 11.0 (3) 10.6 (1) 10.6 (1) 10.2 In 1 000 applicants (-2)

0 someone 20 40 80 100 120 Notes. Asylum is a form of international protection given by a state on its territory to who is60threatened by persecution on grounds of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular group or political opinion in their country of origin or residence. In the EU, this consists of refugee status as defined in the UN Geneva Refugee Convention, plus subsidiary protection for persons who do not qualify as refugees but in respect of whom substantial grounds exist that the person concerned, if returned to their country of origin, would face a real risk of suffering serious harm as defined in the Qualification Directive.

Not all those who cross the EU’s external borders illegally will seek asylum, or indeed qualify under the definition above. They thus form part of the broader category of ‘irregular immigrants’, i.e. those who do not fulfil, or no longer fulfil, the conditions of entry as set out in Article 5 of the Schengen Borders Code or other conditions for entry, stay or residence in that Member State.

Country code (ordered by number of asylum applicants in 2017): Germany (DE), Italy (IT), France (FR), Greece (EL), United Kingdom (UK), Spain (ES), Sweden (SE), Austria (AT), Belgium (BE). Others: Netherlands (NL), Poland (PL), Finland (FI), Romania (RO), Cyprus (CY), Bulgaria (BG), Hungary (HU), Denmark (DK), Ireland (IE), Luxembourg (LU), Malta (MT), Portugal (PT), Slovenia (SI), Czech Republic (CZ), Croatia (HR), Lithuania (LT), Latvia (LV), Estonia (EE) and Slovakia (SK))

3

500

Posi ve decisions (le axis, in 1 000) Posi ve decisions as % of total decisions (right axis)

EPRS | European Parliamentary Research Service

First instance decisions on asylum in the EU-28

59.2%

55.5%

400

47.6%

46.8%

300 First instance decisions (in Eurostat data) refer to decisions taken 43.1% by administrative or judicial bodies in Member 281 States on refugee status and subsidiary protection, as well as authorisations to stay for humanitarian reasons. First instance decisions also include decisions granted to500 persons who are decisions subject to theaxis, Dublin Regulation.

Posi ve (le in 1 000) 200 Posi ve decisions as % of total decisions (rightThis axis)is due The number of asylum applicants and the number of first instance decisions during a given year differs.

191 59.2% to the time elapsed between a request being submitted and the decision. This time varies considerably, depending 55.5% 400workload of Member States. on national asylum procedures and the administrative 100 116 97bar represents the positive decisions The first graph shows the aggregate of positive decisions for the EU-28. The 47.6% 71 in thousands while the circles give the percentage that positive decisions represent in46.8% total decisions. The second 300 43.1% 0 graph presents the distribution between positive and negative decisions by Member State for the year 2017.

2014 Jan-Jun

800

Positive decisions (left axis, in 1 000) 200 EU-28 Positive first instance decisions on asylum in the Positive decisions as % of total decisions

(right axis) 51.6% Positive decisions (left axis, in 1 000)100 % Positive decisions as % of total decisions 45.6% 100 (right axis) 51.6%

60.8% 673

45.5%116

2015 Jul-Dec

60% 50%

281 2016 Jan-Jun

191

34.2%

25.1% 60 2011 60 2011

0

2014 308 60 % Jan-Jun

31.5% 34.2% 31.5%

2014 Jul-Dec

50% 40% 443 2015 2015 Jan-Jun 40% Jul-Dec 443 30% 45.5%

2016 Jan-Jun

167

91

108

2012 91

2013 108

2012

71

2013

308 100 % 40 % 167 2014 2015 80 % 20 % 2014 2015

30% 20%

17% 24% 20% 26% 33% 34% 36% 37% 42% 43% 43% 46% 48% 49% 49% 51% 52% 54% 57% 60%

400 200 25.1%

80 % 45.6% 0

97 673

600 % %

2016

2016

2017

2017

20%

83% 76% 80% 74% 67% 66% 64% 63% 58% 57% 57% 54% 52% 51% 51% 49% 48% 46% 43% 40%

600 400

200 0

2015 Jan-Jun 60%

17% 24% 20% 26% 33% 34% 36% 37% 42% 43% 43% 46% 48% 49% 49% 51% 52% 54% 57% 60%

800 600

2014 60.8% Jul-Dec

11% 23% 26% 31% 33% 34% 38% 39% 40% 47% 48% 48% 49% 50% 51% 52% 54% 56% 57% 59% 64% 65% 66% 68% 69% 69% 71% 75% 88%

40 %

60% 40%

0%

83% 76% 80% 74% 67% 66% 64% 63% 58% 57% 57% 54% 52% 51% 51% 49% 48% 46% 43% 40%

80% 60%

20 %

LT EE LV MT SK RO IE AT SI PT CY LU BE DE SE NL EU-28 FI IT EL

100% 80%

Nega ve decisions Posi ve decisons

11% 23% 26% 31% 33% 34% 38% 39% 40% 47% 48% 48% 49% 50% 51% 52% 54% 56% 57% 59% 64% 65% 66% 68% 69% 69% 71% 75% 88%

100%

LT EE LV MT SK RO IE AT SI PT CY LU BE DE SE NL EU-28 FI IT EL

First instance decisions on asylum by Member State (2017)

Nega ve decisions Posi ve decisons

89% 77% 74% 69% 67% 66% 63% 61% 60% 53% 52% 52% 51% 50% 49% 48% 46% 44% 43% 41% 36% 35% 34% 32% 31% 31% 29% 25% 12%

40% 20%

IE IE 89% LT LT 77% LV LV 74% MT MT 69% SK SK 67% LU LU 66%SI SI 63% EE EE 61% RO RO 60% AT AT 53% PT PT 52% BE BE 52% CY CY 51% DE DE 50% NL NL 49%FI FI EU-28 48% EU-28 46% SE SE 44% EL EL 43%IT IT 41% BG BG 36% ES ES 35% DK DK 34% HR HR 32% HU HU 31% UK UK 31% FR FR 29% PL PL 25% CZ CZ 12%

20% 0%

0%

Data source: Frontex, International Organization for Migration (IOM) and Eurostat (migr_asyappctza and migr_asydcfsta) Nega ve decisions Extraction date: data were extracted in May 2018.

Posi ve decisons This Infographic updates and complements previous editions issued in September 2015 (PE 565.905), in April 2016 (PE 580.893), in February 2017 (PE 595.918) and in December 2017 (PE 614.604).

Nega ve decisions

DISCLAIMER AND COPYRIGHT

Posi ve decisons

This document is prepared for, and addressed to, the Members and staff of the European Parliament as background material to assist them in their parliamentary work. The content of the document is the sole responsibility of its author(s) and any opinions expressed herein should not be taken to represent an official position of the Parliament. Reproduction and translation for non-commercial purposes are authorised, provided the source is acknowledged and the European Parliament is given prior notice and sent a copy. © European Union, 2018. eprs@ep.europa.eu (contact) http://www.eprs.ep.parl.union.eu (intranet) http://www.europarl.europa.eu/thinktank (internet) http://epthinktank.eu (blog)

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