NATO Shipping Centre contributes trade and travel by sea to be as safe and secure as possible. To mitigate any threat, the Centre issues advice and guidance focused on the needs of the global maritime system.

About five routes have been identified in the Mediterranean and East Atlantic areas as channels of illegal crossings: the Central Mediterranean route (CMR), the Western Mediterranean route (WMR), the Eastern Mediterranean route (EMR), the West African route and the Western Balkan route.

The WMR flows directly to Spain from the North West coast of Africa. The West African route is used by irregular West African migrants to transit to Canary Islands (Spain). In the CMR, the flow of irregular migration to Europe points to Italy. Finally, the EMR is used by unauthorized migrants to travel into the EU through Turkey and Greece.

In accordance with Frontex [1] "The number of illegal border crossings at Europe's external borders in the first four months of 2021 reached 36100, about a third higher than year ago when irregular migration dropped due to travel limitations linked to the outbreak of COVID, according to preliminary calculations".

This estimation, in addition to the improvement of the weather during the summer period, make immigrant crafts sights and SOLAS[2] cases arise in certain areas of the Mediterranean following the usual patterns monitored during the past years.