Migratory Routes

Migratory routes are paths that humans use to move from one place to another, across international borders or within a state. While most people worldwide travel for business or tourism and follow official land, air or sea routes to reach their destination, others may move outside the regulatory norms of the countries of origin, transit and destination.

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

Frontex is legally mandated to monitor the external borders of the European Union in order to create a comprehensive picture of the migratory situation affecting the EU.

Our experts combine and analyse the data from various sources, such as surveillance activities, border crossings, migrant registration centres, etc. in order to establish a holistic picture of the migratory pressures on various routes.

Frontex shares migratory data collected from national authorities on a monthly basis in the form of a migratory map which presents the current migratory situation in Europe and allows for close monitoring of the migratory phenomena over time. The map details the number of irregular border crossings per migratory route - cases of crossings of the external borders of the EU considered unauthorised at the time of the crossing under the Schengen Borders Code. 

Migrants and refugees trying to reach Europe often embark on life-threatening journeys as smugglers use increasingly dangerous tactics to cross the Mediterranean. More and more often, they use unseaworthy and/or overcrowded boats but also boats with very high capacity that by their nature create a challenge to search and rescue. Read more about the role of Frontex in search and rescue operations.

Read more about how the EU manages migration flows on the pages of the Council of the European Union: How the EU manages migration flows.

The year 2023 saw yet another increase in irregular migration pressure that reflected the ever-greater geopolitical turbulence in Europe’s neighbourhood and beyond. In 2023, more than 442 000 illegal border-crossings were detected at the EU’s external borders: 380 000 on entry and  , including both attempts and successful crossings. This marks the highest level since 2016. The detections on entry increased by 17% in relation to the 2022 figure, making 2023 the third consecutive year with a significant rise in the number of irregular entries. The increase in illegal border-crossings in 2023 was mostly driven by migrant arrivals at the sea borders.

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

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

In 2023, instability in West Africa was concomitant with a tripling of detected arrivals from that region. Smugglers use larger cayucos ((a type of West African fishing boat) to be able to transport more migrants. The 161% increase in relation to 2022 was mostly driven by more direct arrivals from Senegal, followed by Morocco, and Mali.

As some countries in this region have experienced growing instability, such as military takeovers or socioeconomic insecurity, a further increase on this route is likely. The level of cooperation with West African countries’ authorities is rather low, resulting in only few returns being carried out compared with the number of return decisions issued.

North Africa is the main trafficking hub of African victims of trafficking in human beings, experiencing sexual and labour exploitation in countries of Africa, Europe, and the Middle East.

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 2023 witnessed increased arrivals in the Central Mediterranean (well over 50 000 more than in 2022) and totalled almost 158 000 irregular border crossings (50% more than in 2022). Tunisians, Guineans, and Ivorians were the top three nationalities reported in 2023, a year which saw the most arrivals in this region since 2016, with the seasonal peak in the summer. Tunisia ranked first as a country of departure, followed by Libya. The smugglers used mainly makeshift metal boats to cross the Mediterranean, however a certain increase in new modi operandi was also a marked phenomenon: more seaworthy vessels such as fishing boats in the Central Mediterranean suggests that maritime migratory routes may become less dependent on seasonality than in the past.

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

Around 60 000 detections were reported in 2023, the second consecutive year with a clear rebound in crossings after the pandemic low. Syrians, Afghans, and Palestinians, who left Palestine before 7 October 2023, were the most often reported nationalities. Arrivals of vessels from Lebanon, Libya and Syria were registered in greater numbers.

It is likely that the Eastern Mediterranean and Central Mediterranean route will see more migratory activity and a higher proportion of the overall migratory flows to the external borders due to conflicts and instability in the region.

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 2023, a 12% drop in illegal border-crossings was reported on this route, mostly reflecting the stable situation at the borders with Belarus. However, individual incidents continued to be reported almost every day. The likelihood of the use of irregular migration as a pressure tool may increase given the increasingly tense relations across the European Union’s eastern border.

At the end of 2023, rising numbers of asylum applications at the Finnish-Russian border-control points were reported, resulting in their closure.

This route leads from the North-West of Africa to the south of Spain. It saw an increase of around 12% in relation to 2022, with Moroccans and Algerians by far the largest migrant groups detected. The use of powerful speedboats to transport migrants was a frequent occurrence in 2023.

Migrants frequently report that smugglers are armed, especially along the Western Mediterranean and the Western Balkan routes. The greatest number of reported violence among irregular migrants also occurs on these two routes.

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

The Western Balkan route reported a decrease of around 31% to 99 000 detections. Some of the pressure from the Serbian borders shifted to the EU’s borders with Bosnia and Herzegovina, which saw a roughly 80% increase in illegal border-crossings in the first eleven months of 2023 compared with the same period of 2022. The reported migrants were mostly Syrians, Turks, and Afghans.

Developments at the land borders to the Western Balkans could hold surprises for European border management as visa policies change and loopholes are exploited. Steps in the direction of visa policy alignment have shown promising results. Moreover, since 2021, three countries in the Western Balkans – North Macedonia, Serbia, and Albania – host fully-fledged Frontex operations, thereby supporting their authorities in the prevention of future irregular migration to the EU.

In the English Channel, over 62 000 illegal border-crossings were detected on exit, including both attempts and successful crossings. This represented a drop of 12% compared with 2022 and reflected enhanced surveillance activities and the adoption of early detection measures. Afghan, Iraqi and Syrian migrants were most frequently reported on exit.

Migrants are transported in unseaworthy boats through the English Channel or put in hidden compartments of road vehicles along land routes in the Balkans. Minors are also used as facilitators of other migrants crossing the external borders and making secondary movements, as they can count on lighter sentences when caught by law-enforcement authorities.