Western Balkans Quarterly Report Jan-March 2017

Key findings:

The number of illegal border-crossings by non-regional migrants dropped to levels normal for the season;

There was a slight increase in detected illegal border-crossings at BCPs and refusals of entry issued to non-regional migrants as they search for transit alternatives;

Increase in migratory pressure at the Croatian-Serbian (BCPs) and Romanian-Serbian (green border) borders; the pressure is likely linked to migrants already present in Serbia; While the absolute number of facilitators decreased, their number in relation to the number of illegal border-crossings remained stable;

The irregular flow of citizens of Western Balkan countries rose slightly following seasonal patterns but remained mostly contained to the southern common borders with Greece.