Timeline of the 2015 European migrant crisis

[7] Deutsche Welle (DW) said that some of the likely causes of this decrease included the November 2015 deal made between Turkey and the EU to stem the flow of Syrian refugees into Europe, the closure of the easiest and safest route—the Balkan inland route, as well as intensified efforts by Italy to stop migrants attempting to make the shorter sea crossing from northern Africa to Italy.

[8] As of August 2023[update] Syrians continued to attempt to escape their home country through the Eastern Mediterranean route, through Libya and then by boat to Europe.

[9] According to the Agence France-Presse (AFP) service, the repression of peaceful pro-democracy protests in 2013 in Syria resulted in the ongoing conflict, millions of displaced persons, and hundred of thousands of deaths by 2022.

[1] A 2016 International Monetary Fund (IMF) report described how Europe's "unprecedented surge in asylum applications" peaked in 2015 as the Middle-East was plagued by civil war and political instability.

[1] As of 2023, Germany with 850,000 Syrian refugees, was the EU nation with the largest number, while Türkiye, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Egypt also hosted 5.5 million.

[11] Prior to its construction the northern Greece border along the Evros River provided the shortest and safest route for migrants to enter Europe.

[3]: 2 The Europol Monitoring Team (EPTM) reported that there were 354,618 arrivals by sea to Europe from 1 January to 28 August in 2015 and 272, 070 during the same time frame in 2016, based on data from the International Organization for Migration.

[3]: 2  From January to September 2015, an estimated 380,000 Syrian migrants arrived in the EU with over sixty per cent taking the Eastern Mediterranean route to Greece.

[16] For several year there was a steady decrease in human smuggling activities in Europe but in 2021 there was a sharp increase in all of EU's main land and sea entrance points.