The following is a translation of an article written by Vivien Kalas, a researcher at the University of Public Service Institute for Strategic Studies, originally published on the Five Minutes Europe blog of Ludovika.hu.

Although fewer people entered the EU illegally until April 2025 than in the same period last year, further reductions in migratory pressure are still needed.

The European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) regularly publishes monthly and longer-term aggregated reports on the number of illegal border crossings at the external borders of the European Union and their evolution. Its latest summary presents data for the first four months of this year, from January to April. It shows that in the first third of 2025, around 47,000 illegal border crossings were recorded in the EU, with just over 18,000 attempts to enter the UK illegally from EU territory. Two points from the recent Frontex report deserve more attention. Firstly, while in 2015 the most popular migration route into Europe was the Western Balkans, today, similar to last year’s figures, it is the Central and Western Mediterranean routes, mainly via Italy and Spain. The other thing that emerges from the figures is that, although there are still significant numbers of irregular migrants entering the EU, there were fewer arrivals by all routes until April compared to the same period in 2024, although to varying degrees.

The largest decreases were recorded on the Western Balkan and West African routes and at the eastern land borders. At the latter points, Ukraine, Ethiopia, and Somalia were the main countries of origin, while the West African route was the main route for illegal immigrants from Mali, Senegal, and Guinea, and the Western Balkans route saw the highest numbers of people of Turkish, Afghan, and Syrian origin entering the EU. There was a more moderate decrease in the number of migrants arriving via the Eastern Mediterranean route to Greece, Cyprus, and Bulgaria, with the majority of migrants of Afghan, Sudanese, and Egyptian nationality. The Central and Western Mediterranean routes mentioned above saw the smallest decrease in the number of illegal entrants to the EU, with the highest proportions of border crossers coming from Morocco, Algeria, Bangladesh, and Pakistan.

‘The European Commission would like to see additional instruments to reduce the migratory pressure on the continent’

While more people may venture to the EU in this way with the arrival of warm weather than in the winter months, it is rather the impact of EU activity that is behind the more positive indicators. These include cooperation with the countries of the Western Balkans in coordinating visa policy, as well as agreements with North African countries—Morocco, Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt—to intercept and keep on their territory those who are trying to enter the EU in exchange for financial support.

The European Commission would like to see additional instruments to reduce the migratory pressure on the continent and the Member States in the future. The aim of its March proposal is also to increase the efficiency of returns. A major innovation of the initiative is, for example, the creation of so-called return centres. On the other hand, the Commission would also give nations the possibility to fast-track asylum applications in certain cases, by defining safe third countries and countries of origin in advance and applying a threshold for the recognition rate. The entry into force of the proposals, however, will require the approval of both co-legislators, the European Parliament and the Council.

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