“The total number of irregular arrivals in the EU is around 250,000 this year. I say approximately because for some borders we also count attempts, not only arrivals” by migrants, “but the total number of asylum applications presented for the first time in the EU is 660 thousand, which means that most asylum seekers are arriving via other routes, mostly by plane or moving within the European Union”. This was stated by the European Commissioner for Internal Affairs Ylva Johansson, during a press briefing in Brussels. “And this is why it is so important that we make progress on the migration pact, in so that we have adequate European legislation to deal with this general situation”, he concludes.
The vice president of the European Commission Margaritis Schinas, in a press point in Brussels on the eve of the EU-Western Balkans summit in Tirana, underlines that the entry of “Croatia, Bulgaria and Romania in the Schengen area means more checks, not the other way around. The thesis according to which the enlargement of Schengen would loosen controls is a myth and is unfair: it means having more and better controls”. The Commission has presented an action plan for the Western Balkans migratory route, as it has already done for the route of the Central Mediterranean, based on five pillars and comprising around twenty specific actions.
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