EU sees drop in illegal migrants due to downturn

(MADRID) - The European Union has seen a sharp drop in the number of illegal migrants caught entering the bloc this year due to the economic downturn and better patrols, a senior official of the EU's border security agency Frontex said Wednesday.

A total of 51,600 illegal crossings of the EU's external land and sea borders were detected during the first six months of 2009, down 17 percent on the same period last year, Frontex deputy director Gil Arias Fernandez told a news conference.

The global economic downturn is discouraging migrants from heading to the EU because they are less confident of finding a job while at the same time it is harder from them to pay for the crossing, which can cost several hundred euros, he added.

"Nobody puts their life at risk if they do not have the prospect of a better life," said Fernandez, who predicted the fall in the number of migrant arrivals would continue during the rest of the year and into 2010.

"The economic downturn that affects Europe also affects Africa, therefore it is also more difficult for them to raise the money to make the trip."

Greece accounted for 70 percent of the EU's illegal border crossings this year, Italy 13 percent and Spain around nine percent, according to Frontex.

But while arrivals were sharply down in Spain and Italy, illegal sea arrivals in Greece rose to 14,000 during the first half of 2009 from 9,500 during the same time last year, mostly due to larger detections of nationals from Afghanistan and Somalia.

Arias Fernandez blamed a lack of cooperation from Turkey, which has a decade-long readmittance protocol with Athens, for the rise in the number of illegal migrant arrivals to Greece.

Operational since October 2005, Frontex has been tasked with patrolling 42,000 kilometres (26,000 miles) of the EU's sea borders and 8,800 kilometres of land frontier.

The 27-nation EU posted a 4.8 percent drop in gross domestic product in the second quarter over the same time last year.

Frontex