In the first eight months of 2022, the European border agency Frontex has recorded nearly 188,200 irregular entries at the external borders of the European Union, the highest number of arrivals registered since 2016.
The head of the European Parliament has expressed concern at the growing number of migrants arriving in Cyprus. Irregular migrants make up more than 5% of the Cypriot population – a record in the EU.
Greece has confirmed that it will massively extend a steel fence at the Turkish border to prevent migrants from entering. But a similar wall between Lithuania and Belarus is reportedly being "deliberately damaged" to help migrants reach the EU.
Turkey is cracking down on students and teachers applying for the Erasmus study exchange program. The government has claimed that some are using the program to flee abroad.
![From file: Migrants arrive on the Calabrian coast over the weekend [June 18-19, 2022] | Photo: Albano Angiletta / Italy Photo Press / Imago](https://scd.infomigrants.net//media/resize/my_image_big/1c8482f16df90765240375fba68b126cb775feae.jpg)
Germany plans to take in migrants from Italy under the new EU solidarity mechanism, which seeks to reduce pressure on southern and EU border states.
Finnish authorities report a record number of people seeking protection in the country after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
The EU has approved new rules to facilitate greater access to databases to perform background checks on irregular migrants and asylum applicants in the bloc.
The EU's border agency Frontex is planning new operations in both Senegal and Mauritania. According to an NGO, Statewatch, Frontex will be going to the two African countries to try and block "irregular migration."
Europol said it has arrested eleven suspected people smugglers who brought people into the EU via Belarus. It broke up a ring that is estimated to have made €7 million as income.
The EU and Niger have announced plans to work together more closely to bring an end to the activities of people smugglers. A new initiative launched last week is intended to deepen the cooperation between the two. This comes as Niger's role in combatting terrorism in the region is also increasing.
The 23 migrants who died in June during a mass breach of the border at the Spanish enclave of Melilla likely suffocated, according to Morocco's state-funded National Council on Human Rights (CNDH). A doctor who examined the bodies further specified they had most likely died of "mechanical asphyxiation."
EU Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson has announced that 13 EU countries are ready for the relocation of migrants, with over 8,000 relocations already agreed upon and others ready to provide financial aid. She said that this was a positive result.