Frontex

Austria's Minister of the Interior, Gerhard Karner, has reiterated his steadfast opposition to the full admission of Bulgaria and Romania into the Schengen area, particularly via land borders. Karner emphasized the importance of adhering to the agreed-upon entry terms for Bulgaria and Romania, which currently only allow for air and sea access.

Irregular immigration to the EU from Western Africa rose more than ten times on the year in January, according to the bloc's Frontex border agency, which expects overall arrivals to grow in 2024 and says halting the movement of people completely is impossible.

The European Union's official watchdog said Wednesday it has opened a probe in the role of the bloc's Frontex border agency in the shipwreck off Greece last month that is feared to have killed hundreds of people in the Mediterranean Sea.

Migrant crossings in unseaworthy boats organzied by human traffickers from Northern Africa have spiked this year, with massive losses of life.

Dozens of children were among 145 asylum seekers who were rescued off an islet in the Evros River on the Greek-Turkish border on Thursday morning.

They had reportedly been stranded on the islet for several days after apparently trying to cross into Greece from Turkey. How they became stranded was not clear.

The Greek Coast Guard on Wednesday stated that at least 78 migrants have been found dead after a fishing boat was wrecked off Pylos, Peloponnese. So far, 104 migrants have been rescued.

A rescue operation took place in the early hours of the morning in international waters 47 nautical miles southwest of Pylos.

New data published by European border security agency Frontex on Monday showed that detections of irregular border crossings at the EU's external borders reached a total of nearly 80,700 in the first four months of 2023.

Greek authorities on Wednesday rescued a group of 39 migrants who had been abandoned by smugglers on an islet in the river that runs along the country's land border with Turkey, police said.

A police statement said the 13 men, 11 women and 15 children had been ferried across in a plastic boat from the Turkish side of the Evros river.

The European Union will send officers from its Frontex border agency to help Macedonian border guards fight illegal migrants after signing an agreement on October 20 to do so.

So far, it has been blocked by Bulgaria's veto on North Macedonia's EU integration, as Sofia did not allow the agreement to be signed in the Macedonian language.

Protesters on the island of Lesvos, in the eastern Aegean, have reportedly prevented the Open Arms - a humanitarian vessel operated by Spanish NGO Proactive - from docking at the northern harbor of Skala Sykamias, reports said.

Albanian police said on Wednesday they had broken up a criminal gang trafficking Syrian, Turkish and Iraqi migrants to western Europe from Greece and had arrested eight people including the Turkish ringleader.