In 2026, irregular arrivals fall, and there is no migrant crisis: Frontex exposes the EU countries’ false claims

Brussels – EU: there is no migrant crisis. Frontex, the European Union’s border and coastguard agency, reports a fall in irregular arrivals. The preliminary data released today (14 August) on trends for the first seven months of the year show a general decrease in landings and border crossings. If anything, the report highlights that only the western Mediterranean route has seen an increase: this is the route affecting Spain, the only country facing pressure amid a general easing of migration flows, and for this reason solidarity should be recognised, as argued by the Commissioner for Immigration, Magnus Brunner, but this has not actually happened.

Frontex is now painting a picture of the situation that is very different from that portrayed by the governments of the 27 Member States: with a total of around 61,000 detections, from 1 January to 31 July 2026 irregular border crossings into the European Union have fallen by 37 per cent compared with the first seven months of 2025. In this context, the recorded data indicate that “most of the main migration routes have seen fewer crossings than in 2025″.

Specifically, the number of irregular arrivals of migrants along the Eastern Mediterranean stood at 20,232, compared with 28,068 between January and July 2025 (-28 per cent), while along the Central Mediterranean route, which directly affects Italy, the number has more than halved (16,454 irregular entries compared with 36,656 in 2025, a fall of 55 per cent). The Western Balkans route, on the other hand, has seen a 26 per cent drop (4,910 irregular entries compared with 6,673), and the decline along the eastern land border is even more pronounced (3,209 arrivals compared with 5,775, i.e. a 44 per cent decrease). 

Preliminary Frontex figures show a 37 per cent increase in irregular arrivals along the Western Mediterranean route (11,217 in the period January–July 2026 compared with 8,175 in January–July 2025). In short, Spain is under pressure, unlike the rest of the European Union, which, instead of helping, is leaving Madrid to deal with the rise in irregular migration flows on its own.