The arrival of migrants to the European Union through the Western Mediterranean route skyrocketed in 2016, surpassing 10,200; 46% more than the previous year, according to data released today by the European Frontier Agency (Frontex).

Due to the increasing number, Fabrice Leggeri, Frontex's director, said today at a press conference that flows of immigrants from the Western Mediterranean are "limited" and "under control" since the total figure is around 2 or 3% of arrivals to community territory.

The Western Mediterranean situation contrasts with the Balkan route where the number of immigrants fell 83% in one year to 130,200 people, the report added.

In the Western Mediterranean route, which mainly leads to Spain, immigrants came particularly from Nigeria, Eritrea and Guinea what reveals the "growing pressure of irregular immigration" from Africa to the European Union.

The text explains that through the hurdles of Ceuta and Melilla arrived last year 1,000 immigrants, a low record number, although last December around 400 sub-Saharans managed to access Ceuta in a massive leap.

However, there were a high number of arrested immigrants (8,000) who tried to enter through the sea; mostly from Morocco and Algeria across the Strait of Gibraltar.

In most of the cases, the journey on this route is made in rubber boats, "a dangerous modus operandi, especially when the weather conditions are unfavorable," he says.

In 2016, there were half a million irregular accesses to the European Union, according to the agency, which highlights the significant drop, compared to 1.8 million from the year before.

Although the number remains high compared to the arrivals of 2010 (104,000) and 2014 (282,000).

Frontex estimates that half of the million immigrants arriving to the European Union; at least 382,000 came from the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

Most of the immigrants entered via Italy and Greece which in total registered 180,000 arrivals.

In Greece, most of the immigrants arrived between January and March.

The agreement between the Union and Turkey which came into force on March 18th last year, allowed the readmission of immigrants by Ankara.

On the other hand, Italy recorded a rise of 17% in arrivals compared to the previous year, mostly from people from Lybia.

For the fourth consecutive year, those claiming to have Syrian nationality represented the highest percentage of intercepted immigrants (17% of the total).

Otherwise, the number of non-European citizen's returns to their countries origin reached 176,000 in 2016, in line with the previous year; which Frontex explains it is because of the difficulties by the national authorities to obtain travel documents for the returnees.

In 2016, Frontex coordinated the return of 10,000 non-European citizens through 232 flights, compared to the previous year, when it helped the return of 3,565 foreigners in 66 flights.

Originally published in Noticias MVS

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