Irregular migration to Europe falls 30% amid rights concerns over deterrence policies

Irregular crossings at Europe’s borders dropped by 30% in the first quarter of 2025 compared with the same period last year, a decline that human rights groups partly attribute to EU deterrence policies they say overlook potential rights abuses.

The decrease occurred across all major migratory routes into Europe, with nearly 33,600 fewer arrivals recorded in the first three months of the year, according to the EU border agency Frontex.

Routes through Albania, Serbia, Montenegro and North Macedonia saw the steepest decline at 64%, while crossings into the UK fell by 4%.

“It’s not only about the statistics. This is coming at a cost of people drowning in the Mediterranean, being beaten up at the Poland-Belarus border and pushed back into Belarus,” said Judith Sunderland of Human Rights Watch.

“There’s a massive human cost behind those numbers,” she continued.

The falling arrivals coincide with the EU’s increased partnerships with countries outside Europe, such as Libya and Tunisia, where practices including beatings, sexual violence and imprisonment have been documented.

“The decline in official numbers does not mean we’re seeing fewer people on the move,” said Allison West, senior legal adviser at the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR). “It means we’re seeing more people being contained in horrific conditions in Libya and Tunisia that amount to crimes against humanity, with EU cooperation and approval”.

The ECCHR has filed two complaints to the International Criminal Court concerning the treatment of migrants in the central Mediterranean region.

The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) reported an increase in boat interceptions departing from North African countries, which may have contributed to the decline in European arrivals.

Despite the downward trend, at least 555 people lost their lives attempting to cross the Mediterranean or Atlantic to reach Europe in the first quarter, adding to more than 3,500 deaths recorded last year, according to IOM data.

UNICEF reported on Tuesday that approximately 3,500 children have died or gone missing in the central Mediterranean while trying to reach Italy over the past decade.

The data suggests a continuation of the downward trend seen in 2024, when irregular border crossings into Europe dropped by 38% compared with the previous year.

(information from The Guardian)