It's the worst possible scenario. They're leaving their home countries with nothing and arriving with an even bleaker future ahead of them.
25.03.2018:
https://www.dw.com/en/on-the-edge-of-the-eu-refugee-flows-fl...
It's not clear how many make it across. But last year alone, officials from Frontex, the EU's border agency, said they intercepted 5,500 illegal crossings, a whopping 80 percent rise compared to the previous year.
During that same period, Turkish authorities told the United Nations they had intercepted nearly 21,000 people, more than triple the number reported the previous year.
29.9.2017:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/29/surge-in-migra...
The number of people arriving, across land and sea borders, has more than doubled since the beginning of the summer. Authorities estimate arrivals are now at their highest level since March 2016, with over 200 men, women and children being registered every day.
“We’re living the days of 2015,” said Pantelis Dimitriou from Iliaktida, a local NGO on Lesbos operating accommodation and support centres for the newly arrived. “The flows have become huge. From around 50 to 60 in early July they are now at more than 200 every day.
2.7.2017:
https://gulfnews.com/news/europe/italy/italy-overwhelmed-by-...
But it is also a reflection of Italy’s years on the migration front lines with little help from the rest of Europe. More than 82,000 people have arrived in Italy this year, a 20 per cent increase over the same period last year, according to the United Nations refugee agency.
Under current EU rules, asylum seekers are supposed to apply for protection in the first EU country that they enter. At the height of the refugee crisis in late 2015, EU leaders set up a quota system to try to distribute some of the refugees from the main arrival nations of Greece and Italy, but it has barely gotten off the ground.
The influx has strained Italian infrastructure — and the goodwill of Italian voters.
"Frontex reported on Tuesday that the number of people illegally crossing into the European Union had fallen by 60 percent in 2017 compared to the previous year. "
http://www.infomigrants.net/en/post/7683/eu-agency-frontex-r...
That second link is also about a short period where they were seeing a lot of people per day, but that has nothing to do with the total numbers on a year basis.
Yes, the start of 2017 was high, yet the total was much lower.