(Reuters) – Illegal migration has dropped at borders all over the EU in the first nine months of the year except for Greece’s frontier with Turkey, where five times as many illegal crossings were detected, the EU border agency said.
Illegal border crossings decreased by 99 percent in Spain’s Canary islands in this period and by two-thirds in Italy, under the combined effect of Europe’s economic crisis and repatriation deals signed with African countries.
But arrivals of illegal migrants jumped by an annual 369 percent to over 31,000 at Greece’s land border with Turkey in the nine months to September, the Frontex border agency said on Tuesday.
Frontex Deputy Executive Director Gil Arias-Fernandez said the Greek-Turkey border had become for many a safer and cheaper route to the EU rather than crossing the Mediterranean.
Nine out of 10 illegal immigrants now use Greece as their springboard into the EU and the debt-choked country is struggling to cope with swelling numbers at its northern border.
“The main problem for tackling this flow of illegal immigration in Greece is on one hand the little, not to say lack of, cooperation from the Turkish side,” Arias-Fernandez told a news conference.
Greek officials say Turkey is not doing enough to stop people from crossing illegally to Greece and Turkey’s refusal to take back immigrants who have crossed from its territory encourages would-be migrants to use that route.
Initial indications showed a monthly drop of illegal arrivals at the border with Turkey in November after the start of an EU border mission but it was too early to say what the impact of the two-month operation would be, he said.
Illegal immigration to Greek islands and at the border with Albania dropped sharply, meaning that overall the number of arrivals to the country in the first nine months of the year is about the same as last year.
(Reporting by Ingrid Melander; Editing by Jon Hemming)
via Illegal migration to EU drops except Greece: report | Reuters.