Italy has the highest number of arrivals by sea but relatively few refugees, and the central Mediterranean is not the only route: all the figures on migration to Europe.
"Italy, Greece, Malta and Cyprus, as countries of first entry into Europe, via the central and eastern Mediterranean route, bear the heaviest burden of migration management in the Mediterranean, in full compliance with all international obligations and EU rules." These are the words used by the interior ministers of the four countries named, at the opening of a lengthy joint statement released on the sidelines of the Ocean Viking crisis, the vessel belonging to French NGO Sos Méditerranée that docked at Toulon after several days at sea in the Mediterranean. But what are the actual figures on migration to Europe?
The answer is far more complex than the simplistic terms to which the phenomenon of migration is so often reduced. The four countries in question are, for purely geographical reasons, obviously the ones most affected by flows coming from Libya, but also from Tunisia and Turkey. Indeed, over the past few weeks, with the help of persistently fine weather, hundreds of people a day have been landing on the shores of Lampedusa, Sicily and Calabria, and only a small minority with the assistance of NGO vessels. But if we look at some of the official data published by European Union and United Nations agencies, the picture broadens considerably.
Frontex, for example, the European agency for the control of external borders, detected 275,500 irregular crossings at the EU's external borders since the start of 2022 in its latest report. That figure represents an increase of 73 per cent compared with the same period last year, and is the highest since 2016. But the central Mediterranean route, which has also seen a significant rise of 48 per cent with 79,140 crossings, is not the busiest overall: the Western Balkans route (which runs along the border between Bosnia and Croatia and then the non-Schengen border between Croatia and Slovenia) remains the most active route into the European Union, with 128,438 detections since the start of 2022 — almost three times more than a year ago, and over 22,300 in October alone. To put that in context, in that same month of October, Italy, Greece, Malta and Cyprus declared an emergency over 7,071 certified arrivals. Less than a third of those who came via the Balkans.
As is well known, the high number of crossings is attributable to repeated attempts to cross the Bosnian-Croatian border (with associated pushbacks often accompanied by violence on the part of Zagreb's police) by migrants already present in the Western Balkans. But there are other routes used by "people on the move," as they describe themselves: 35,000 people arrived in Greece and Bulgaria in 2022 via the eastern Mediterranean, departing from Turkey (+10 per cent compared with 2021): they are mostly Syrians and Afghans fleeing war and dictatorship, and Nigerians (surprisingly, though perhaps not entirely: from Nigeria it is in fact possible to fly to Istanbul without a visa, and from there to continue by makeshift means, avoiding the desert).
Declining but still open are the westernmost and easternmost routes. Fourteen thousand Moroccans and Senegalese set off from Morocco's Mediterranean coast to reach Spain, taking advantage of the short distance between the two landmasses near Gibraltar — not forgetting the Ceuta and Melilla crisis last June, when thousands of people tried to scale the wall protecting the two Spanish enclaves on Moroccan soil in order to reach Europe without crossing the sea.
12,300 people also set off from Morocco, but from the Atlantic coast, in the territory of Western Sahara, to reach the nearby Canary Islands after a few but extremely dangerous (we are talking about the ocean…) hours at sea. Finally, just over 5,000 people (mainly Iraqis and Syrians) entered Europe via its continental eastern borders: a 44 per cent drop in 2022 owing, of course, to the war that broke out in Ukraine, which brought tens of thousands of Ukrainian refugees into Europe through those borders, though obviously through legal humanitarian corridors.
But the figures on migration tell other stories too. It is true that Italy is, by far, the country with the highest number of arrivals by sea: in 2022 there were 92,000, according to data from the Interior Ministry updated to 15 November, an increase of 60 per cent on last year. And it is true that Italian hotspots are currently hosting around 100,000 people, as stated by Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi, and are at breaking point. Piantedosi, together with the interior ministers of Malta, Greece and Cyprus, explained in the statement issued at the end of the dispute over the four NGO vessels carrying more than a thousand refugees on board that "the modus operandi of these private vessels is not in line with the spirit of the international legal framework on search and rescue operations, which should be respected."
Unfortunately, the political and media attention devoted to the affair of Humanity 1, Geo Barents, Rise Above and Ocean Viking (which subsequently docked in France) is entirely unjustified: contrary to Piantedosi's claim that "the presence of vessels belonging to non-governmental organisations continues to represent a pull factor, a pull factor that is also useful to the criminal organisations that base their modus operandi on the presence of NGO assets in the area," only just over 10 per cent of arrivals in Italy occur via NGO vessels: all the others are autonomous landings on the shores of Sicily, Lampedusa or Calabria, or involve the intervention of the Italian Coast Guard.
Other interesting migration figures are those relating to reception. While it is true that the majority of migrants arrive in Italy (though not all of them) and that the numbers provided for under the voluntary redistribution agreement are woefully low (just 117 so far out of the 8,000 envisaged), Italy is by no means first when it comes to asylum applications received in absolute terms: in 2021, Germany received 190,54, France 120,685, and Spain 65,295. Italy is fourth in Europe with 53,610. The same ranking applies for the number of people who have already been granted refugee status: in Germany there are 1.49 million, in France 543,000, and in Italy "just" 191,000. But Italy falls even further down the rankings when the number of asylum seekers is measured against the population: it is also surpassed by Austria, Ireland, Belgium, Denmark, and Malta and Cyprus themselves.
How is this explained? By the fact that, in reality, migrants who land in Italy do not want to stay but to move on to northern Europe, where they already have a family or friendship network to reunite with, or where they see greater opportunities for integration. There are at least two ways of doing this: one legal, which involves a family reunification application. The second illegal, involving movement within European borders, facilitated by the Schengen Convention, which does not provide for specific checks between one country and another.
This is why, in the context of the diplomatic crisis over migration triggered by the Ocean Viking case, Paris announced the tightening of controls at the border with Italy, particularly at Ventimiglia: it is from there, in fact, that every day dozens and dozens of people who have landed in Italy without being identified attempt to cross the border and apply for asylum in France, or continue on to northern Europe or Germany — the most sought-after destinations for migrants. Far more so than Italy.
