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Thousands of migrants continued to arrive in Greece and Italy in December despite difficult weather conditions, bringing the total number of detections in the two countries to 1.04 million in all of 2015. This is nearly five times the figure from the previous year.

In December, 108 000 migrants were detected in Greece, down from 155 000 the previous month, but still 40 times the figure from December 2014. This brought the total number of migrant arrivals in Greece in 2015 to 880 000.

The Greek islands of Lesbos, Chios and Samos saw the biggest number of people coming to their shores. Syrians remained the top nationality.

Central Mediterranean

Meanwhile, the number of migrants using the Central Mediterranean route to Italy in December rose by 50% to nearly 9 700. This was caused by good weather conditions despite the onset of winter and continued flows of migrants to Libya. This brought the total for the year to 157 000, which was 8% lower than the record set in 2014. The main reasons for the year-on-year drop was the shift of Syrian migrants to the Eastern Mediterranean route (Greece) and, in recent months, a shortage of boats available to people smugglers.

Last month, Nigerian nationals accounted for the biggest share of migrants arriving in Italy.

Western Balkans

The Western Balkan route continued to be directly affected by the unprecedented number of migrants who first come to Greece to later continue their journey through its northern border. The number of illegal border crossings in December 2015 fell to 97 000 from 156 000 the previous month, but was still 16 times higher than in December 2014. New policies implemented by the authorities of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia limited the inflows from Greece to three nationalities: Syrians, Afghans and Iraqis.

Most of the migrants at the borders in the Western Balkans were previously detected in Greece.

The monthly figures for December are preliminary and are subject to change after further consolidation.

In all of 2015, there were 1.83 million illegal border crossings detected at EU’s external borders compared to the previous year’s record of 283 500.

Frontex provides monthly data on the number of migrants detected at the external borders of the European Union. Irregular border crossings may be attempted by the same person several times in different locations at the external border. This means that a large number of those who were counted when they arrived in Greece were again counted when entering the EU for the second time through Hungary or Croatia.