The number of illegal entries into the European Union rose by 86% from January to July 2022 compared to the same period last year, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) said on Friday in a statement obtained by AFP and Agerpres.

In July, the annual increase was 63%, reaching 34,570 entries without legal documents to the territory of Europe.

Frontex says it has not taken into account the arrival of Ukrainian refugees, estimated at 7.7 million since Russia invaded Ukraine in February.

14,866 illegal crossings of European borders took place through the Balkans, three times more than in the corresponding month of 2021. The route remains the “most active”, with 70,770 cases registered in the first seven months of the current year.

Most of the arrivals are migrants from Syria, Afghanistan and Turkey.

More than 42,500 migrants entered the EU between January and July this year on the route that crosses the center of the Mediterranean Sea, a 44% increase on the first seven months of 2021.

Across the eastern Mediterranean, the number of migrants in the same period was 22,601, more than double the number of migrants arriving in Europe in the same period last year.

Of the total number of detected migrants, more than half arrived in Cyprus, especially from Syria, Nigeria and Congo.

On the eastern border of the European Union, the number of illegal crossings has decreased by 32% since the beginning of the year, only 2,923 such cases were registered. Mostly citizens of Ukraine, Iraq and Belarus came here.

Finally, the 28,000 illegal border crossings recorded on both sides of the English Channel this year represent a 55% increase on the first seven months of last year.