Albanian migrants with an irregular stay in the countries of the European Union are ranked seventh in the list of ten countries with the largest migratory flows according to the data published by the latest report of the European Border Protection Organization, FRONTEX.
According to FRONTEX's "Brief Analysis 2022-2023" Report, their number increased in 2021 with 25,892 people who make up 5% of the total number of foreigners with illegal stay in the countries of the European Union. (468,719 of the total )
The number of Albanian migrants with this status increased by 18% compared to 2020, where there were 21,890 Albanian citizens with illegal stay in EU countries.
In 2021, the European Union reported about 200,000 illegal border crossings in member states. This according to the FRONTEX Report was the highest recorded since 2017. The Central Mediterranean, Western Balkans, and West African routes were the three main routes with the highest flows of irregular migrants recorded during 2021.

"Even in the face of strict requirements for legal migration in Europe, often the only choice open to migrants is irregular migration, which often results in a severe humanitarian situation," the report states.
Meanwhile, according to the data of the report, the border authorities of the European Union countries in 2021 refused entry to the EU countries to 17,725 Albanian citizens out of 11,653 that was this rejection status in 2020.
Most of the rejections, about 8,000, came after migrants did not have documents at border points justifying travel to a European Union country.
Meanwhile, Albanians occupy the second place of effective returns from European Union countries through two ways, "voluntary" and "forced" returns.

In 2021, the return was for 8,702 people, while in 2020 it was 7,935 people.
According to FRONTEX data, irregular Albanian migrants lead the list of irregular foreigners forcibly returned to their country of origin in 2021 with 5,398 people out of 4,801 people who were returned in 2020.
Meanwhile, voluntary return was accepted in 2021 by about 2,944 people from Albania, out of 2,771 in 2020.
Frontex warns in the risk analysis that in the years 2022 and 2023 they are likely to see a further increase in irregular immigration at the borders of the EU based also on political and socio-economic driving factors at the national level of the main countries of origin such as and higher-level drivers such as continued global inflation and rising food prices following the war in Ukraine./VOA