The European Union’s concerns about illegal migration from the Balkans have continued to grow with numbers doubling since last year.
New figures from EU border agency Frontex said the Balkan route made up 45 per cent of illegal crossings this year.
The number of migrants now taking that path is at its highest since the migration crisis of 2015, it said.
It comes as Austria raises the alarm about the number of migrants slipping through the net to reach its landlocked borders.
The increasing traffic is blamed partly on migrants using favourable visa rules to land in Serbia, then continuing to EU borders.
But Frontex said there were also “repeated attempts to cross the border by migrants already present in the region”.
It said there were 14,105 arrivals from the Balkan region last month, twice as many as throughout last year.
People from Syria, Afghanistan, Turkey and Tunisia are the most common nationalities to use that route this year.
Austria has questioned the official figures by saying many migrants are not being registered until they reach its borders.
Six western Balkan countries — Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania and North Macedonia — are in various stages of applying to join the EU.
The bloc has urged them to align their visa policies with Brussels to close loopholes.
EU members Romania and Bulgaria meanwhile had their applications to join the visa-free Schengen zone vetoed by Austria.
It sparked a war of words as Romania said Austria was playing political games and was in turn accused of failing to get a grip on migration.
In the latest salvo, Romania’s Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu told his counterpart Alexander Schallenberg that Austria’s claims were wrong.
Accession to the Schengen zone “cannot be artificially connected” with other issues “for which Romania is not responsible”, the country's Foreign Ministry quoted Mr Aurescu as saying.
Elsewhere, Frontex said illegal border crossings across the entire EU were at their highest level since 2016.
It reported a sharp increase along the Eastern Mediterranean route to Greece and Cyprus.
More than 3,400 people arrived at EU borders by that route last month, typically from Syria, Afghanistan, Nigeria or the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
But numbers were down on the eastern border, where a crisis erupted a year ago where Poland meets Belarus.
Only 334 people were detected trying to enter the EU by that route last month, Frontex said.
Most Ukrainian refugees do not count towards the figures because they generally have legal status in the EU.
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
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The years Ramadan fell in May
Brief scores:
Scotland 371-5, 50 overs (C MacLeod 140 no, K Coetzer 58, G Munsey 55)
England 365 all out, 48.5 overs (J Bairstow 105, A Hales 52; M Watt 3-55)
Result: Scotland won by six runs
KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
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TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
T20 World Cup Qualifier
October 18 – November 2
Opening fixtures
Friday, October 18
ICC Academy: 10am, Scotland v Singapore, 2.10pm, Netherlands v Kenya
Zayed Cricket Stadium: 2.10pm, Hong Kong v Ireland, 7.30pm, Oman v UAE
UAE squad
Ahmed Raza (captain), Rohan Mustafa, Ashfaq Ahmed, Rameez Shahzad, Darius D’Silva, Mohammed Usman, Mohammed Boota, Zawar Farid, Ghulam Shabber, Junaid Siddique, Sultan Ahmed, Imran Haider, Waheed Ahmed, Chirag Suri, Zahoor Khan
Players out: Mohammed Naveed, Shaiman Anwar, Qadeer Ahmed
Players in: Junaid Siddique, Darius D’Silva, Waheed Ahmed
Auron Mein Kahan Dum Tha
Starring: Ajay Devgn, Tabu, Shantanu Maheshwari, Jimmy Shergill, Saiee Manjrekar
Director: Neeraj Pandey
Rating: 2.5/5
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Our legal columnist
Name: Yousef Al Bahar
Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994
Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers
KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
