"During the fourth quarter of 2015, 1,105 persons were detected for illegal crossing of the regional and common borders between BCPs border-crossing points]. Detections of illegal border-crossing between BCPs decreased by 41% in relation to the third quarter of 2015 (down from 1,882) but increased by 8.5% compared with the same quarter of 2014," Frontex said adding that the most significant drop was observed for Ukrainian and Vietnamese nationals in absolute terms, as well as for Georgians and Syrians in relative terms.
A 58-percent uptick in illegal crossings was observed among Iraqis, Frontex said. Nearly 40 percent of the fourth-quarter figure included mostly Ukrainian, Moldovan and Russian nationals, while the remaining 60 percent involved Afghans, Vietnamese and Iraqis.
In 2014, Frontex detected 1,000 third-quarter and 1,018 fourth-quarter illegal border crossings.
The European Union has 19 main border crossing points along its frontiers with Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and Moldova.
