Operational coordination between Spain and Morocco in border management and maritime surveillance coincided with a significant drop in irregular migration along the West African route, with monitoring operations decreasing by 63% and departures from Morocco falling by 17%, according to a report by the European Union Asylum Agency (EUAA).
The report explained that this security cooperation assisted reduce migration flows along the route, while departures from neighboring Algeria increased by 17%.
The same report noted that the European Council adopted the first unified EU-level list of «safe countries of origin» in late February 2026, as part of the implementation of the Migration and Asylum Pact. The list includes Bangladesh, Colombia, Egypt, India, Kosovo, Morocco, and Tunisia.
According to the report, the inclusion of these countries means that EU member states will apply an accelerated procedure for processing asylum applications from their citizens, while still assessing each application individually. Citizens from these seven countries accounted for about 16% of all asylum applications registered in the EU in 2025.
21,000 asylum applications from Morocco in 2025
In 2025, asylum applications included 37,000 from Bangladesh, 25,000 from Egypt, 22,000 from Colombia, 9,700 from India, 3,700 from Kosovo, 21,000 from Morocco, and 9,000 from Tunisia, according to the report. Acceptance rates for asylum requests from these nationalities ranged between 2% and 6% across EU countries.
The Western Mediterranean route also recorded an increase in irregular border crossings, rising from about 17,000 cases in 2024 to around 19,000 in 2025, marking an 11% increase.
This rise is linked to the growing number of migrants arriving from Somalia and the Sahel region, with some reportedly choosing the Western Mediterranean route as an alternative to the West African route. However, Algerians continued to account for more than two-thirds of total departures.
By contrast, the West African route toward the Canary Islands recorded a sharp decline in irregular crossings, dropping from about 47,000 cases in 2024 to around 17,000 in 2025, representing a 63% decrease. The decline was mainly attributed to reduced migrant flows from Mauritania, Morocco, and Senegal.
Data cited from Frontex in the report also displayed that Morocco ranked tenth among nationalities involved in illegal crossings of the EU’s external borders between January and November 2025, with 6,786 cases, representing 4% of the total.
Bangladesh ranked first with 22,353 cases (13%), followed by Egypt with 17,489 (10%), Afghanistan with 14,879 (9%), Sudan with 12,782 (8%), Algeria with 11,129 (7%), Ukraine with 10,006 (6%), Eritrea with 8,675 (5%), Mali with 7,123 (4%), and Somalia with 6,819 (4%).
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