This EMN Policy Brief examines trends in applications for international protection and irregular movements of third-country national migrants across the EU and Norway. It focuses on the period 2012 - 2016 and – where data is available - up to August 2017. This is an update of the Policy Brief published in December 2015.

This EMN Inform shows how movements of asylum-seekers, migrants and displaced persons to the EU have changed and evolved in 2015.

According to data collected by IOM’s Missing Migrants Project, 2023, with at least 8565 deaths and disappearances, is the deadliest year since the project's inception in 2014. IOM highlights the urgent need for action to prevent further loss of life.   

Frontex revealed today that the number of detections of irregular border crossings at EU’s external borders rose by one fifth (+18%) in the first eight months of 2023 to over 232 350 and that this increase was primarily driven by the number of arrivals through the Central Mediterranean, which remains the main migratory route into the EU. 

The Migration Policy Center dedicates a website to the migrant crisis in order to provide a wide audience with the facts needed to understand the course of events in this matter.