The Western Balkan Route
– Migration Trends from Hungary’s Perspective
Copyright (c) 2022 Pénzváltó Nikolett
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Abstract
The pressure of irregular migration on the southern border of Hungary during 2022 has been increasing. While the increase in the number of illegal border crossing attempts in 2020–2021 could be attributed at least partially to the lifting of the restrictions introduced due to the Covid–19 pandemic, the further increase in 2022 cannot be explained by that. Although the current numbers are far below those seen in 2015, this does not mean that illegal migration is not a security challenge today. The study examines the irregular migration movements through an analysis of the available data. It focuses on the Western Balkan route, which most directly affects Hungary, and on the period after 2020, while regarding the types of migration, it deals exclusively with its irregular form.