Today, the Schengen area covers an area with 42,673 km of sea and 7,721 km of external land borders, where over 400 million Europeans from 26 European countries can move without the requirement of a passport.  On May 16, 2012, the European Commission issued its first Biannual Report on the functioning of the Schengen area covering the period November 1, 2011 to April 30, 2012. During the last three months of 2011, “the number of irregular border crossings increased compared to the previous year, to nearly 30,000 crossings.” The report’s findings show that, “About 75% of those were reported from the Eastern Mediterranean route, whereby Afghans and Pakistanis were the most frequent nationalities.” The report continued, “The pressure at the Schengen external border is linked to developments in relevant third countries, which was evident during the Arab Spring in 2011. The Commission notes that the situation in Syria may prompt a future migration flow into neighboring countries, and also into the European Union.”

The European Union’s Warsaw-based border control agency Frontex produced a detailed situational picture as part of the agency’s Annual Risk Analysis for 2012. (PDF)

In a related story from the EUobserver on Greece’s continuing issues with asylum seekers, it was reported that Frontex is concerned that the impact of austerity measures “is increasing disparities between member states in their capacity to perform border controls. Frontex also claims that budget cuts exacerbate corruption and increase the vulnerability to illegal activities across the external borders.”