Tempus 2015 v 03

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Illegal immigrants to EU more than double in 2014

The number of illegal immigrants entering the European Union more than doubled last year with 75% of them having arrived through the Mediterranean Sea, the EU migration commissioner has said.

More than 276,000 migrants arrived in the EU last year, representing an increase of 138% compared to 2013, according the bloc's Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship, Dimitris Avramopoulos.

Speaking in the European Parliament on Tuesday, Avramopoulos said that 207,000 of the migrants entered Europe through the Mediterranean with people smugglers increasingly employing a new method, packing illegal migrants into cargo ships and then abandoning them at sea close to the coasts of Greece and Italy. Previously, the smugglers used mainly small boats or dinghies.

The latest incidents occurred earlier this month when two cargo ships carrying about 1,200 illegal immigrants were intercepted by Italian coast guard vessels operating within the EU’s border surveillance mission Triton.

"Smugglers are finding new routes to Europe and are employing new methods in order to exploit desperate people who are trying to escape conflict and war," Avramopoulos told members of the European Parliament.

More than a dozen of cargo ships carrying illegal immigrants have arrived in Europe since September 2014, mainly in Italy. Most of the illegal immigrants were fleeing war-torn Syria, other countries in the Middle East or Africa, according to the EU’s border management agency, Frontex.

According to Avramopoulos, the EU agencies and member states should improve their cooperation and build a more comprehensive approach “to address the roots of the current flows of irregular migrants and of smuggling”.