Irregular Migration and Terrorism in the European Union—An Analysis Based on Reports of EUROPOL and FRONTEX

Abstract

The international migration has intensified during the last two decades. The number of the irregular migrants entered the European Union reached unprecedented level between 2014 and 2018. From 2015 to nowadays the European Union experienced a massive number of casualties caused by terrorist attacks. These facts are reinforced by the data of the European criminal statistics as well. Having regard to that the terrorist attacks constitute one of the most serious violations of the human rights and fundamental freedoms on which the EU is founded, it is very important to deal with the relationship between the mentioned two phenomena. Although, there is no evidence to declare that all of migrants are terrorist, however—it can be underlined-, the terrorists make use of migratory flows to enter into EU. It shall be emphasized that the phenomenon of the irregular migration is favorable to the terrorist organizations. The paper deals with the question of whether is there a connection between the irregular migration and the terrorism in the European Union, using European statistics of the European Law Enforcement Agency (EUROPOL) and the FRONTEX. Dealing with legal documents and analyzing them is not aim of this paper.