Detections of irregular migrants entering the European Union fell in 2024 to the lowest level recorded since 2021 due to a crackdown on traffickers, the bloc's border agency said on Tuesday.
The latest data from the Frontex agency come as far-right anti-immigration parties have been performing strongly in elections around Europe.
The Warsaw-based agency said last year's preliminary data revealed "a significant 38-percent drop" in land and sea crossings from the previous year.
It said in a statement the numbers were at "the lowest level since 2021, when migration was still affected by the COVID pandemic".
Frontex said the decrease in undocumented asylum seekers was mainly driven by a plunge in arrivals through routes in the Central Mediterranean -- largely via Libya -- and Western Balkans regions.
"Despite persistent migration pressure, intensified EU and partner cooperation against smuggling networks has significantly reduced crossings at Europe's external borders," Frontex said.
Overall, in 2024 the agency saw over 239,000 irregular entries into the EU.
The biggest fall was registered along the route through the Western Balkans, a 78-percent drop that Frontex attributed to "strong efforts by regional countries to stem the flow".
Irregular entries detected via the Central Mediterranean fell by 59 percent from the 2023 level due to "fewer departures from Tunisia and Libya", where European officials have been coordinating efforts with local authorities, Frontex said.
Despite the decrease, the route still accounted for about 67,000 crossings, the second highest among all routes after the Eastern Mediterranean route, it added.
Frontex said the share of women among detected migrants was at "just over 10 percent".
'Weaponisation' of migration
Other routes used by undocumented asylum seekers, however, saw sharp increases.
Spain's Canary Islands in the Atlantic registered an 18-percent rise in arrivals to almost 47,000, the highest figure since Frontex began collecting data in 2009.
This was "fuelled by departures from Mauritania", Frontex said, adding that "flows from other departure points declined".
Spain has moved to the forefront of the European Union's migration crisis as tighter controls in the Mediterranean push more asylum seekers to attempt the perilous trip from West Africa to the Canaries.
A rescuer holds a child as 'cayuco' boat from Senegal with 136 migrants onboard including 40 women and 17 young children arrives after being rescued at sea at La Restinga port on the Canary island of El Hierro. Maritimo. Photo: AFPP"For countries trying to seal these routes, it's a bit like sealing a vessel," said Mateusz Krepa, from the University of Warsaw's Centre of Migration Research.
"You plug one hole and suddenly another appears," he told AFP.
Frontex also said a "threefold" rise in detections was recorded at the EU's eastern land borders, including at Poland's frontier with Belarus.
"This is the safest route, despite everything. The route through the forest is safer than the one through the Mediterranean Sea," Krepa said.
EU states along the bloc's eastern edge have accused Russia and its ally Belarus of pushing thousands of migrants over their borders in recent years as part of a campaign to destabilise Europe.
In December, the EU said that member states bordering Russia and Belarus could limit the right to asylum for migrants in the event of their "weaponisation" by Moscow and Minsk.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said last month the right to asylum "is being used today -- especially on the border with Belarus -- by Poland's enemies".
Commenting on the latest figures, Frontex's executive director Hans Leijtens said that 2024 "highlighted emerging risks and shifting dynamics".
The agency said smuggling networks were adapting to new circumstances and rapidly shifting migration flows.
It also warned against "increasing violence" by smugglers along the Western Balkans route.