The European Union provided €673 million ($718 million) in funding to four North African countries from 2021-23 to help the quartet reduce what it calls irregular migration to the 27-member bloc, official data shows.
Last year about 270,000 “irregular migrants” arrived in the EU via sea crossings, 64 percent more than in 2022.
Crossings from the central and eastern Mediterranean represented a combined 55 percent of the total, and were up 56 and 113 percent respectively year on year, according to Frontex, the EU’s border and coastguard agency.
The influx of such migrants, who do not enter the EU through official border controls, has prompted European politicians to act.
From 2021-23, the European Union gave Tunisia €175 million, Egypt €180 million, Libya €125 million and Morocco €193 million, a spokesperson told AGBI, explaining this was to fund the “protection of vulnerable refugees and migrants, return and reintegration, border management and anti-smuggling”.
Source: Trade Finance
