Illegal migration to Italy increased during 2018
Story Highlights
- According to the European Statistics Agency (Eurostat), 27,000 illegal immigrants found themselves in Italy in 2018, about 10,000 less than in 2017. The majority of them were males, young people between 18 and 34 years of age, originating in Morocco, Albania and Tunisia.
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TIRANA, Aug. 13 - The number of illegal Albanian immigrants increased during 2018 in the neighboring country, coming second in terms of migration numbers after Morocco.
Compared to a year ago, the number of illegal immigrants increased by almost 30 percent, (from 2330 in 2017 to 3025 in 2018), Italian media Il Sole 24 reported.
Most of them, according to the published analysis, belong to the group age 17-34 years, with about 1920 individuals identified according to published data. For the age group over 35 years old, there are 1100 Albanian migrants staying in Italy illegally.
According to the European Statistics Agency (Eurostat), 27,000 illegal immigrants found themselves in Italy in 2018, about 10,000 less than in 2017. The majority of them were males, young people between 18 and 34 years of age, originating in Morocco, Albania and Tunisia.
According to estimates, Italy does not have a higher number of illegal migrants compared to other countries. In recent years, authorities have identified from four to six illegal immigrants per 10,000 inhabitants, far less than those identified in other countries such as Austria or Germany, or even France, the United Kingdom and Spain, not to mention Greece, which has had the highest values for some time.
Illegal Albanians in the EU
The number of Albanians who have been unable to obtain the necessary documentation and permits have been forced to live illegally in one of the European Union countries.
According to Eurostat alone in 2018, 34,810 illegal Albanians have been identified across the European Union. However, compared to a year ago, their numbers have been declining by 13 percent, from over 40,000 in 2017.
Data from the last decade show that the number of Albanians living illegally in the EU has had its ups and downs.
Ten years ago, 2009 marked the record of this decade, with 69,000 Albanians going in Europe. Their numbers then declined, especially after the abolition of visas for Albanians in the Schengen area in 2011, where the number of illegal Albanians was 17,245.
Over the years, Greece has reported the highest number of Albanian immigrants living and working without papers. In 2018, the number of Albanians illegally staying in Greece was 11,190, or 32 percent of the total illegal Albanians across the EU.
In second place is Germany, where according to Eurostat, 2018 marked 6570 Albanians living there illegally, about 38 percent less than a year ago, followed by France with 4355 and United Kingdom with 3580.
In Italy, during 2018, approximately 3025 Albanians were identified without relevant residence documents, about 8 percent of the total EU illegal migration. Their number in Italy increased by nearly 600 more immigrants compared to a year ago.
2018 saw an increase in the number of illegal Albanian immigrants in the Netherlands as well, leading to the Netherlands seeking to reestablish the visa regime with Albania. In 2018, about 1,000 illegal immigrants were identified in the Netherlands, about 2.3 times more than a year earlier. The number of illegal Albanian immigrants in the Netherlands has increased especially in the last three years.
The figures have also been rising in Spain, where in the last year alone 1035 illegal immigrants have been identified, nearly 30 percent more than a year earlier. Since 2014 even migrants identified as illegal in the country of the Iberian Peninsula have been on the rise.
