Every year more than 100,000 people try to enter the EU without proper documents. In their desperation many of these illegal or irregular migrants fall victim to unscrupulous human traffickers and many never reach Europe's shores, as the recent tragedy off Lampedusa reminded us. On 23 October MEPs adopted a joint resolution calling for a coordinated and above all more humane approach to this European issue. Find out more about the migratory flows to Europe in our infographic.
The urgency of the situation was highlighted by the disaster off the coast of the Italian island Lampedusa on 3 October, when hundreds of people lost their lives. Recent figures from Frontex show that the number of migrants passing through the central Mediterranean, mainly through Sicily and Lampedusa, has this year already exceeded 31,000 migrants. Find out more about the migration flows to the European Union in 2012 in our infographic.