Frontex signs working arrangement with Kosovo 2016-05-25 Today Frontex Executive Director Fabrice Leggeri and the Minister of the Internal Affairs of Kosovo* Skender Hyseni signed a Working Arrangement for the establishment of operational cooperation between the Agency and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Kosovo.“Strengthening of operational cooperation between the EU member States and Kosovo are of great significance given the latest developments in the entire Western Balkans region,” said Frontex Executive Director Fabrice Leggeri.The aim of ... Read more
Frontex starts talks on a working arrangement with authorities in Kosovo* 2016-01-21 Frontex Deputy Executive Director Berndt Körner met with Kosovo’s Minister of Internal Affairs Skender Hyseni on Wednesday to launch negotiations on a working arrangement between the agency and Kosovar authorities. Such an arrangement would establish cooperation in areas including information exchange, risk analysis, training and joint operations.“We received a green light from the Frontex Management Board to go ahead with these negotiations. The events of last year have clearly shown the ... Read more
Frontex publishes Western Balkans Annual Risk Analysis 2015 2015-05-12 The number of illegal border crossings in the Western Balkans region rose by 65 per cent last year to 66 000, with two-thirds of the detections on the Hungarian-Serbian border. The surge of migrants across this border section was so high that at one point in December it accounted for more than half of all illegal border crossings at the EU’s external borders. The number of citizens of Syria detected at the EU borders with the Western Balkans jumped nearly four-fold from 2 700 in 2013 to 12 540 ... Read more
FRAN Q4 2014 2015-04-17 Files available for download Publications/Risk_Analysis/FRAN_Q4_2014.pdf (434.4 KB) In the fourth quarter of 2014 indicators of irregular migration and asylum exchanged un-der the Frontex Risk Analysis Network (FRAN) changed only slightly compared the third quarter of 2014. Winter months tend to be marked by substantially lower migration pressure at the external borders, but in Q4 2014 detections of illegal border-crossings and illegal stay dropped less significantly and did not fall to the ... Read more
Analysis of W. Balkans: Number of Syrians quadrupled in Q2 2015-09-04 The number of Syrians detected at the borders in the Western Balkans region nearly quadrupled to 20 000 in the second quarter compared to the previous three months. Syrians ranked just ahead of Afghans, whose number nearly tripled to 18 850.The record number of Syrians and Afghans detected at the Western Balkan borders is closely linked to the massive inflow of migrants arriving on the Greek islands from Turkey. The high pressure on the Aegean Islands is later echoed on the Western Balkan route ... Read more
Situational update on migratory flows in February 2015 2015-03-24 In January and February 2015, the Western Balkan route registered more than 26 600 illegal border crossings, a tenfold increase compared to the same period of last year. Such high numbers were mainly caused by the unprecedented numbers of Kosovo* nationals crossing the Serbian-Hungarian border illegally. However, this migratory flow also included other nationalities, primarily Afghans and Syrians travelling from Turkey via Greece and Bulgaria.As a consequence of increased border control ... Read more
WB ARA 2015 2015-05-12 Files available for download Publications/Risk_Analysis/WB_ARA_2015.pdf (4.2 MB) New and unprecedented high numbers were reported across several indicators used to measure regional irregular migration risks during 2014. For example, there were more than 66 000 detections of illegal border-crossing at regional and common green borders, a number 65% higher compared to 2013. Over two-thirds of all these detections occurred at one border section only: the Hungarian-Serbian, mostly in the period ... Read more
First quarterly analysis of Western Balkans published 2015-07-23 In the first quarter of 2015 over 44 000 irregular migrants were detected crossing borders between Western Balkans countries (Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania, FYR Macedonia and Kosovo) and between Western Balkan countries and their EU neighbours. It is noteworthy that of the 44 000 detected migrants, more than 27 500 were nationals of the Western Balkans. At the EU external borders, Greek and Hungarian borders were the most affected. Albanians were the most frequently ... Read more
Frontex and Moldova sign new cooperation plan 2018-03-26 Frontex Executive Director Fabrice Leggeri and Fredolin Lecari, Head of the General Inspectorate of Border Police of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Moldova, signed a cooperation plan for the period from 2018 to 2020. The cooperation, which builds on a working arrangement signed in 2008, paves the way for improved exchange of information on migratory flows, the use of relevant data to combat cross border crime and initiatives to support technical assistance to the Moldovan ... Read more
WB Q1 2015 2015-07-23 Files available for download Publications/Risk_Analysis/WB_Q1_2015.pdf (1.1 MB) Key findings: Sustained pressure with regards to non-regional secondary movements with Afghans as the most commonly detected nationality (sixfold increase compared to Q1 2014Significant drop in arrivals of Kosovo citizens started in mid-February 2015. The ‘exodus’ was stopped through efficient multilateral cooperationOverall increase in asylum claims submitted by Western Balkan nationals in EU Member States/Schengen ... Read more