Photo credit: ABC News
The European Union countries received fewer irregular migrants in the first eight months of this year.
However, Daily Mail.com reports a spike in migrant arrivals to the Canary Islands, which are used as a stepping stone to continental Europe.
Irregular migration dominated the European parliamentary elections in June and influenced recent state elections in Germany, where a far-right party won for the first time since World War II. The German government this week said it was expanding border controls around its territory after recent extremist attacks.
Although there were heated debates, irregular crossings over the southern borders of the EU—the region that sees the most unauthorized migration—were down by 35% from January to August, according to the United Nations’ International Organization for Migration.
Almost 115,000 migrants have arrived without permission into the EU via the Mediterranean and Atlantic routes this year. 176,252 was recorded for the same period last year.
“The emergency is not numerical this year, nor was it last year,” Flavio Glacomo a spokesperson of the IOM said.
Camille Le Coz, an associate director of the nonprofit Migration Policy Institute in Europe, said irregular migration is “getting way too much attention compared to the scope of the issue and compared to other issues Europe should be tackling, such as climate change.”
