Unauthorized migration to European Union countries dropped significantly overall in the first eight months of this year, even as political rhetoric and violence against migrants increased and far-right parties espousing anti-immigration policies made gains at the polls.
There was, however, a spike in migrant arrivals to the Canary Islands, a Spanish archipelago close to the African coast that is increasingly used as an alternate stepping stone to continental Europe.
Irregular migration dominated the European parliamentary elections in June and influenced recent state elections in eastern Germany, where a far-right party won for the first time since World War II. The German government this week announced it was expanding border controls around its territory following recent extremist attacks.
Several migrant boats, carrying only the remains of Malian, Mauritanian and Senegalese citizens, have been found this year drifting as far away as the Caribbean and off Brazil.
Yikes. Adrift at sea would be a shitty way to go.
The smugglers don’t give a fuck, they got paid.
In the Mediterranean they use any shitty dinghy that just about floats and drive paying people to international waters, then the smuggler bails out in a proper boat and leaves the people adrift to be rescued by NGOs or coast guard.
It is down for the over the Mediterranean Sea routes and up for the from Turkey into Greece routes. And through the Canary Islands.
How long the downward trend will hold remains to be seen, however. Smugglers are always quick to adapt and find new routes around border controls. In the Eastern Mediterranean, the second-most-used route, smuggling networks are now using speedboats in increasingly aggressive ways to avoid controls and targeting islands farther away from the Turkish coast in the central Aegean, according to Greek authorities.
The number of migrants arriving in Greece by sea and overland during the first eight months of the year rose by 57%, U.N. data shows.
Associated Press - News Source Context (Click to view Full Report)
Information for Associated Press:
MBFC: Left-Center - Credibility: High - Factual Reporting: High - United States of America
Wikipedia about this sourceSearch topics on Ground.News
https://apnews.com/article/germany-elections-thuringia-saxony-afd-a9221a180462d22b2956943931c03bc5
https://apnews.com/article/irregular-migration-decrease-europe-spike-canary-islands-0d5b29dbca615e323b01a10baaea6fb3
https://apnews.com/article/eu-election-right-migration-climate-polls-vote-0fbfcb7bd987008e802d70f759fa870b
