Brussels: Frontex Agency of the European Union has claimed that there has been an increase of more than 300 per cent in the infiltration of refugees into Europe from the Mediterranean region. In the first four months of 2023, more than 40,000 refugees tried to enter Europe through the Mediterranean Sea, said the head of Frontex, Hans Leijtens. Leijtens warned that Tunisia had become the centre, and the number of refugees entering from this country has increased by more than 1000 per cent. As the influx escalates, Italy has announced that it has busted a major refugee smuggling ring.
Over the past year, the number of infiltrators using the Mediterranean Sea route has increased again. Earlier in the last decade, the ‘open door policy’ adopted by the German government had led to a huge increase in the number of refugees entering Europe. In 2015, the number of refugees entering Europe from the Mediterranean Sea reached one million. After that, the number of refugees coming from the Mediterranean region was more than lakhs for the next few years. In 2020 and 2021, there was a huge decrease.
But now it is coming out from the information given by the head of ‘Frontex’ that it has started to increase again. A record influx of refugees has started from the two parts of the Mediterranean region, the Central Mediterranean and the Western Mediterranean. More than 30,000 refugees have infiltrated from the ‘Central Mediterranean’ region alone in the four months between January and April. This includes refugees from African countries as well as Pakistan.
Frontex said there had been an increase of 305 percent in infiltration compared to 2022. ‘We have never seen such a record influx of refugees in this area,’ claimed Hans Leijtens, head of Frontex. Leijtens pointed to a 1,100 percent increase in refugees entering Europe from Tunisia alone. The Frontex chief also warned that human trafficking gangs had changed their ‘modus operandi’.
Meanwhile, while the amount of infiltration is increasing, it is seen that European countries have also increased the scope of operations against it. A few days ago, Italian security forces busted a large refugee smuggling ring and arrested 29 people. This gang included citizens from Middle East countries and was active in Greece and Turkey along with Italy. The French authorities have decided to use drones to monitor the refugees going to Italy from France.
