2009 Annual Risk Analysis Report - Part 1
3. Situation at the external borders The purpose of this section is to describe the situation at the EU external borders through the annual statistics for six indicators collected within Frontex Risk Analysis Network (FRAN) for 27 Member States as well as for Iceland and Norway as Schengen Associated Countries. The indicator of illegal border crossings and the indicator of refusals of entry relate directly to the border guard activities of border surveillance and border checks performed in and between the 1,792 border crossing points (BCPs) along the EU external borders (871 at sea borders, 665 at air borders, and 246 at land borders). They are complemented with statistics on asylum applications and illegal stay, which provide for information on the final destinations of illegal migrants, and also help to establish trends and patterns in illegal migration not necessarily detected at the borders. The detections of facilitators and forged documents offer indications on the modi operandi for illegal migration. Statistics are collected by border types-land, sea and air-and for land borders by borders sections with neighbouring third countries. For illegal border crossings, detections at the air borders were not included because of Member States' different reporting practices. Cases of illegal border crossing at the air border being limited, this omission does not affect the overall analysis. For the description of the situation at the air borders, refusals of entry serve as a better indicator. The data collected within the FRAN are compiled and analysed every quarter. Priority is given to the use of the data for management purpose and its rapid sharing among the Member States' border guard authorities. FRAN data is not meant to be official statistics, and thus the officially published national statistics may vary from the FRAN data. Justification 4 3.1. Detections of illegal border crossing In 2008, border guard authorities reported at the se total of 174,800 detections of illegal border er ng. This represented a 24% increase from 2 2007, based on the corn arisen for 27 Member States out of 29 for which data was available for the two years. lllland 85% of the detections were reported from just three southern European countries- Greece, Italy and Spain-highlighting the importance of illegal migration through the southern borders of the EU. Most of the increase between 2007 and 2008 was due to lar er detections in ltal 11 of80 Annual Risk Assessment 2009
Table 2: Detections of illegal border crossings at external land and sea EU borders by Member States in 2007 and 2008 - N 0 c.-.o 0 Trend over 2007• 00 0 I Total I [)(] □ DB [)□ DOT LOOB )> ::::, ::::, C tll ;;o iii" -;,,;;- )> en en (l) en en 3 (l) ;:?. N 0 0 (0 i Comparable total** I[Bo,soo I 174,soo I 24% !Rounded Total I 114,aoo l Comparab.1e chang_e** -4% 70% Rounded Total I 82,600 92,200 Percent of total 47% 53% : = not available; n.a. = not applicable; * > 10% Increase; +/-10% Stable; < -10% Decrease ** = excluding MS without data for 2007
c,.) Table 3: Top ten nationalities detected for illegal border crossings at external land and sea borders in 2008 a ex, 0 All borders Nationality Total reported % of total I MS highest share Albania 44,144 25% Afghanistan 19,473 11% Morocco 12,685 7% Somalia 11,620 7% Iraq 9,159 5% Tunisia 7,744 4% )> Nigeria 7,11 2 4% ::, - -- ::, Eritrea 5,087 3% C Ill Palestinia 4,549 3% :::0 ui" Algeria 4,464 I 3% 7' )> Others ( 122 nationalities) 48,763 28% (/) I (/) CD Rounded Total 174,800 I 100% (/) (/) 3 CD Land borders Sea borders ;:l.. Total %of Total %of "' 0 Nationality MS highest share Nationality 0 re orted total re orted total (!) Albania 41,261 50% Afghanistan 18,229 20% Morocco ----- 6,309 8% Somalia 11,034 12% lra_g 6,1 86 7% Tunisia 7,661 8% ._ C Syria 2,905 4% Nigeria 6,935 8% ,... V, Palestinia 2,750 3% Morocco 6,376 7% 3 n Pakistan 2,657 3% Eritrea 4,953 I 5% ,... OJ 5· Serbia 2,561 3% Algeria 3,804 4% ::, .i:,. Ukraine 2,472.__ 3% Iraq 2,973 3% - - Other (not specified) 1,562 2% Albania 2,883 3% Myanmar 1,340 2% Egypt 2,600 3% 'others (107 Others (104 12,590 15% nationalities nationalities Rounded Total 82,600 100% Rounded T Source: FRAN data as of 9 March 2009
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Illegal border crossing and border length With the entry of Switzerland in the Schengen area on December 2008, the total length of the EU external land borders was reduced by about 1,800 km to 9,200 km, the eastern land border totallin 5 700 km and the land border with Western Balkan countries 2 700 km. The eastern land borders had fewer detections per km than other land borders regions and two hypotheses may be put forward to explain th is situation: (i) the actual low flow of illegal migrants as a result of low pressure for illegal migration and efforts to detect migrants that worked as deterrent; (ii) the difficulty to conduct surveillance activities over vast areas. While the first hypothesis is the most likely, the lack of estimate on the undetected flow of migrants does not permit to rule out the second. ~ Justification 4 - -
Justification 4 All Member States neighbouring Belarus and Russia had a similar and low ratio of detections •• •:.111,1,1,1,::11-.u.:i;:.l-'l::1.11ia~=:.•:.u.1o1:,w:na:ia.r.:·:.i..•:1.:·•.:1o:•:.&&1u.aa::.i::.i:a1:1.::J • •• • •• Nationality The analysis of the 2007-2008 trends of detected nationalities was not possible because 2007 data was only broken down for the top 10 nationalities. etections for illegal border crossing tal with 44,200 detection 'h Justification 4 16 of 80 Annual Risk Assessment 2009
3.2. Refusals of entry In 2008, border guard authoriti · t the EU external borders. This represented a ~ - - - - - - IIJustification 4 Refusals of entry split roughly equally between land (56,300) and air (66,500) borders, with sea borders well behind (6,700). This pattern follows the distribution of regular flow of passengers that is considered larger at the air and land borders then at the sea borders. However, data on regular passenger flow through the EU external borders is not yet collected systematically, and thus it is not possible to compare the rate of refusals of entry against the number of passenger ~ - - ':a.....- - - - ~ checks performed at the three border types. The comparison of number of passengers checked on arrival and refusals of entry at the air borders across all Member States shows that Member States had different refusal rates. ~ - - - - - - l lJustification 4 The difference may be explained by (i) the nature of the passenger flows, with some Member States being especially targeted by passengers not meeting EU entry requirement; (ii) the nature of the airports, with some Member States having airports specialised in transit flights;
(iii) the resources available at the border checks; and (iv) the use of pre-boarding checks with some Member States being able to rely on Immigration Liaison Officers in the countries of departure. Comparison between Member States needs to be better and more precisely assessed, but different refusal rates suggest it is paramount to collect alerts and intelligence and spread it through Europe ._- - --- - I - l I ~ Justification 4 Justification 4 18 of 80 Annual Risk Assessment 2009
a ._/. ?: t -\ NTEX ,,u, .. J 1Q_.,, -'),.,_\ U1 -,.-.,;r ,r ::c j I r,, _;, 11111111 Data collection on the reasons leading to a refusal of entry was put in place in 2009 by the FRAN as a part of the new regulation on Community Statistics on migration (Regulation EC 862/2007). For 2008, only the numbers of detections of forged documents provided some indication on the possible reasons for refusals of entry. However, data for two indicators have been collected separately, and thus are only indirectly linked. Bearing in mind this limitation, 20,700 forged documents were detected, representing 16% of the refusals of entry. Therefore, more than three-quarter of the refusals of entry were issued for other reasons than forged documents, such as the lack of appropriate documentation justifying the purpose of stay in the EU- mostly believed to be the case for Latin American nationals being refused entry at the air borders. Nationality Justification 4
I\.) Table 4: Refusafs of entry at external EU borders by Member States in 2007 and 2008 - 0 0 00 0 Member State Land Air Sea )> ::::J ::::J C: Q) ;:o oo· ;:,;- ~ en CD en en 3 CD ~ I\.) 0 0 co Comparable change** 0 ::::J Round-ed Total I sG,300 I 66,500 I 6,700 .j::,, Percent of total 43% 51% 5% : = not available; n.a. = not applicable * >10% Increase; +/-10% Stable; <-10% Decrease; **=excluding MS without data for 2007 Source: FRAN data as of 9 March 2009
