Europe keeps getting stuck in the same argument about immigration and asylum, especially along the Mediterranean and Balkan routes. You hear the same words: crisis, pressure, burden, solidarity—so much that they start to lose meaning. What gets said in official speeches doesn’t line up with what’s actually happening in the ports, camps, classrooms, or clinics. If this conversation is ever going to move forward, it has to get closer to real life. That means talking straight about the actual numbers and the real consequences.

Let’s get into the numbers. In 2024, EU countries made almost 941,000 asylum decisions. Only 22 per cent of those people received full refugee status. Another 21 per cent received subsidiary protection. The rest are stuck, neither accepted nor sent home, just waiting, sometimes for years, while appeals drag on. Limbo isn’t some accident anymore; it’s more like the system’s default. It drains money, time, and people’s trust in government.

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Yet journeys continue. “In 2024, about 187,000 people crossed the Mediterranean by sea. Even after Europe tried to toughen borders and made new deals with North African governments in 2025, tens of thousands still arrived.” People throw around words like flows or pressure, but every number hides a person who got in a fragile boat, fully aware of the risks. Some are escaping war or persecution. Others are pushed by hunger, failed harvests, or economies collapsing under climate disasters.

A comparable narrative emerges from instances of irregular border crossings. “Around 167,000 were recorded in 2025, a quarter less than the year before.” Some politicians call that proof........

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