The number of people known to be attempting illegal entry into EU nations last year nearly doubled in just one year.
A total of 107,000 people were detected and reported to the EU's borders agency, Frontex, compared with 72,500 in 2012, Frontex said.
While the figure rose by 48%, it is still much lower than in 2011, when the Arab Spring forced numbers up to 141,000.
Now it is the ongoing tragedy in Syria which accounted for almost 25% of the increase in 2013. As war raged in their home country, some 25,500 Syrians were detected trying to enter illegally, while Syrian applications for asylum in the EU nearly doubled on the previous year, to reach 50,096.
After the Syrians, the biggest groups of illegal migrants came from Eritrea, Afghanistan and Albania.
Most migrants tried to enter the EU by crossing the Mediterranean and landing in Italy. Others targeted Spain’s enclaves in Morocco while some continued to penetrate the Greek borders.
There was an increase in the number of Chechens seeking asylum in the EU. However, Russians and Chechens were the first to be refused entry at EU borders, followed by Ukrainians and Albanians.
An EU agreement stipulates that migrants must remain in the country in which they arrive until their refugee status is decided.
But after an Italian warship rescued 206 survivors and retrieved 17 corpses from a shipwreck this week, the country’s interior minister said his country would defy the rule if it did not get EU help to patrol the Mediterranean.
"We want to clearly say to the EU that they either patrol the Mediterranean border with us or we will send all those who ask for asylum in Italy where they really want to go: that is, the rest of Europe, because they don't want to stay in Italy."
