France has returned the largest number of people – more than 3,000 – out of more than 25,000 migrants expelled from the EU in the second quarter of 2024. But the number of people ordered to leave is actually much higher.
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The number of migrants ordered to leave the EU has fallen – it is 10% lower than a year ago – but a considerable gap remains between those who receive an order to leave the EU and those who are actually repatriated.
According to the latest data from Eurostat, of the 96,115 non-EU citizens who received an order to leave the EU between May and August 2024, less than a third (25,285) actually left the Union.
This gap, however, appears to be narrowing, since the number of people returned to third countries increased by 21.3% compared to the same quarter of 2023.
Which country deports the most migrants to third countries?
In the second quarter of 2024, France carried out the highest number of migrant expulsions in the EU (3,870), followed by Germany (3,710) and Sweden (3,185).
France also recorded the highest number of repatriation decisions (31,195), followed by Germany (12,885) and Greece (6,555).
Algerians and Moroccans are the most numerous nationalities to have received an order to leave EU territory in the second quarter of 2024, representing 7% of the total, followed by Turks and Syrians (6% each).
However, when it comes to people who actually left the EU, the largest nationalities are Georgians (10%), followed by Albanians (8%) and Turks (7%).
Thousands of migrants stuck in the twists and turns of bureaucracy
So how can we explain this huge gap between repatriation orders and the repatriations that actually took place?
First of all, this does not mean that tens of thousands of migrants are hiding on EU soil, experts say.
“Removal measures may be suspended in several cases,” Sergio Carrera, senior researcher at the Center for European Policy Studies, told Euronews.
“Some people cannot be expelled due to technical or practical obstacles, for example, due to health problems, or if the country of origin cannot be identified, or in the case of victims of human trafficking. human beings, or in the case of unaccompanied minors”, he added.
“The European directive on repatriation, in its current version, does not harmonize these procedures. The way in which authorities deal with these issues is sometimes completely different, not only from one state to another, but also from one region to the other.”
According to Sergio Carrera, it is therefore difficult to break down the phenomenon of repatriation into more precise figures and to guarantee the legality of these procedures.
“There is enormous heterogeneity and a lack of transparency and accountability. The line between obligations and faculties is very blurred.”
The EU is trying to fill this gap by funding a new project called “More”, which aims to critically examine EU and UK return and readmission policies.
“In this project we will challenge the notion of the effectiveness of EU return policies as they currently exist”Carrera said, “because any return policy must comply with fundamental rights”.
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