Irregular border crossings and asylum applications (in millions)

The number of people trying to enter the EU irregularly has decreased significantly since 2015. Frontex reported 141 846 detections of irregular EU border crossings in 2019, a 92 % decrease compared with 2015 (see Figure 1). The downward trend continued in 2020. According to preliminary reports, 60 800 irregular border crossings were detected between January and August 2020 (a drop by 14 % compared with the same period in 2019).