Migratory Routes

Migratory routes are paths people use to move across borders or within a state. While most travel for business or tourism and follow official land, air or sea routes to reach their destination, others may move outside the regulatory norms.

Such irregular movements have many roots and are often provoked by local or regional instability, fragile geopolitical situation of a state, poverty or human rights violations.

Frontex monitors the external borders of the European Union to provide a comprehensive picture of migration trends. Our experts analyse data from various sources, including surveillance activities, border crossings and migrant registration centres, to establish a holistic picture of the migratory pressures on various routes.

Each month, Frontex shares migratory data collected by national authorities in the form of a migratory map which presents the current migratory situation in Europe and allows for close monitoring of migration patterns over time.

Many migrants attempting to reach Europe face life-threatening journeys, as human smugglers use unsafe or overcrowded boats to cross the Mediterranean or reach the Canary Islands. These crossings pose significant challenges for search and rescue operations. Learn more about Frontex’s role in search and rescue.

The year 2024 saw a significant 38% decline in irregular border crossings into the EU, reaching the lowest level since 2021, when migration was still affected by the COVID pandemic.

Despite persistent migration pressure, intensified EU and partner cooperation against smuggling networks has significantly reduced irregular crossings at Europe’s external borders, with just over 239,000 detections recorded last year.

The decrease in the total number was driven mainly by a 59% decline in arrivals via the Central Mediterranean route and a 78% fall in the number of irregular crossings via the Western Balkan route.

The Central Mediterranean, Western Balkan, and Eastern Mediterranean routes were the top three migratory routes into the EU based on the volume of reported irregular border crossings, with Syrian, Afghan, and Tunisian migrants being the most-often reported nationalities.

Not all routes exhibited the same irregular migration patterns, which tended to vary across the continent.

The Western African Route connects West Africa (and further north) with the Spanish Canary Islands.

In 2024, the Canary Islands saw an 18% increase in arrivals to almost 47 000, the highest figure since Frontex began collecting data in 2009. This was fuelled by departures from Mauritania, even as flows from other departure points declined. Malians, Senegalese and Moroccans were the top nationalities arriving on this route.

The stretch of the Mediterranean Sea between North Africa and on the European side Italy and Malta is one of the main migratory routes to Europe. The northwards movements are joined by migratory movements from the Eastern Mediterranean area.

The year 2024 witnessed a significant decrease of 59% in arrivals on the Central Mediterranean. Despite this drop this route still accounted for about 67 000 crossings, the second highest among all routes.

Bangladeshis, Syrians and Tunisians were the top nationalities, accounting for around half of all migrants arriving via this route.

This migratory route encompasses movements towards Cyprus, the Greek sea borders and towards the Greek and Bulgarian land borders with Türkiye.

Around 69 400 detections were reported in 2024, the third consecutive year with a clear rebound (14% increase in comparison to 2023) in crossings after the pandemic low. Syrians, Afghans, and Egyptians were the most often reported nationalities.

It is a 6 000-kilometre-long land border between Belarus, Moldova, Ukraine, the Russian Federation and the EU Member States – Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Slovakia and Romania.

In 2024, a threefold increase in crossings was reported, mostly along the borders with Ukraine and Belarus.

This route leads from the North-West of Africa to the south of Spain.

In 2024 it saw an almost unchanged level of illegal border crossings, owing to an increase in departures from Algeria offsetting lower numbers from Morocco. Nationals of Algeria, Morocco and Mali accounted for majority of all detections.

The use of powerful speedboats to transport migrants was just like in a previous year a frequent occurrence in 2024.

The Western Balkan route includes Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Croatia at the land borders with countries from the Western Balkan region.

In 2024 the Western Balkan route reported a sharp 78% fall to 21 520 of detections followed strong efforts by regional countries to stem the flow.

The reported migrants were mostly Syrians, Turks, and Afghans.

In the English Channel, over 67 500 illegal border-crossings were detected on exit, including both attempts and successful crossings. This represented an increase of 9% compared with 2023. Afghan, Syrian and Vietnamese migrants were most frequently reported on exit.

The smugglers' modus operandi (simultaneous departures, combined with overcrowded and unseaworthy boats) led to a sharp increase in the number of deaths to an all-time high (78 deaths in 2024 according to IOM).