EU border agency Frontex
said Wednesday that the number of migrants who arrived in
European via the central Mediterranean route towards Italy
dropped to its lowest level since 2012 last year.
"On the Central Mediterranean route, departures from all
third countries dropped in 2018," Frontex said in a report.
"Noteworthy, Tunisia replaced Libya as the main country of
departure for migrants detected on the Central Mediterranean
route in September, October and December (in the other
months it was Libya).
"Importantly, departures from Libya, having fallen by 87%,
accounted for the vast majority of the drop in detected migrants
on this route.
"Departures from Algeria fell by almost half compared with
2017, while departures from Turkey via the Aeagan and Ionian Sea
fell by 37%.
"The route hence recorded its lowest number of intercepted
migrants since 2012.
"The share of claimed minors on this route increased slightly
in 2018 compared with 2017, recording a share of 19% (84% of
them unaccompanied).
"Tunisians and Eritreans were the two most represented
nationalities on this route, together accounting for more than
one third of all detected migrants".
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