EU’s Frontex expects illegal migration to Spain to rise further in 2018

Europe’s border agency expects a further increase in arrivals of illegal migrants in Spain by sea this year, after numbers more than doubled in 2017. Some 22,900 people were detected as they reached Spain via Morocco or Algeria last year, up from 10,231 in 2016 – a steep increase that was boosted by migration from those two northern African countries, Reuters reports. While arrivals in Italy and Greece via Libya have dropped, the total number using these routes remain higher than those migrating to Spain, with no sign of any major shift, Frontex Director Fabrice Leggeri said on Friday. Nearly 40 percent of migrants intercepted while crossing to Spain by sea Spain were Algerian and Moroccan nationals.