Head Of Frontex Presents Startling Data To Parliament On Illegal Immigration

While presenting the data in Parliament during a meeting of the Chairpersons of the Committees of Justice and Home Affairs of EU national parliaments to discuss migration policy, Ilkka Laitinen, Frontex Executive Manager, noted that the number of migrants illegally crossing the European Union's borders increased significantly in 2013.

Laitinen said there were about 700 million transits over the European Union's external borders in 2013. Compared to 2012, the number of illegal transits rose by 48 percent to 170,000.

He said that the Eastern Mediterranean route, which is of particular interest for Greece, is among the six routes that Frontex is focused on.

     "The good news is that in 2013, we had 33 percent fewer cases but the number is still high, there were almost 25,000 cases," he said.

The focus, he added, is on the borders between Bulgaria and Turkey and the sea borders between Greece and Turkey, while Syrians are the largest nationality group for illegal migration.