Fewer than four out of every 10 irregular migrants ordered to leave the European Union actually returned to their home country or a third country, the European Court of Auditors has said.

Every year since 2008, an average of half a million foreign nationals are ordered to leave the EU because they have entered or are staying irregularly.

However, only 38% return to their country of origin or to the country from which they travelled to the EU. This average drops to below 30% for returns outside Europe. One of the reasons for the low returns is the difficulty of cooperating with migrants’ countries of origin, the auditors said.

Dealing with migration is a pressing issue for the EU and the ECA, the EU’s external auditors, carried out several audits of the arrangements within the EU on asylum and relocation of migrants.

“We will now take a deeper look at their return and readmission to third countries,” Leo Brincat, who sits on the ECA, said.

Brincat is leading an audit of the EU’s cooperation with third countries on the readmission of irregular migrants. Through it, the auditors will assess whether the suite of measures the European Commission took after 2015 improved cooperation with priority third countries.

In 2015, the Commission published an EU action plan on return, in which it recognised that an effective system of return required the readmission of irregular migrants to be prioritised in dealings with third countries.

In 2016, it introduced the migration partnership framework to foster better cooperation with targeted priority countries of origin and transit, including via visa policy, development aid and diplomatic engagement.

In 2017, it launched a renewed action plan on return, with recommendations on how to make readmission to third countries more effective.

To make it easier to implement readmission obligations, the EU concluded 18 legally binding readmission agreements with third countries. However, third countries may be reluctant to engage in negotiations, mainly due to internal political considerations, since these agreements can be a source of public hostility.

Since 2016, the Commission has focused on developing practical cooperation arrangements with them and has put in place several legally non-binding arrangements for return and readmission, which have drawn criticism from the point of view of democratic and judicial accountability.

The auditors aim to assess the EU’s progress since 2015 in developing the framework for readmission of irregular migrants to third countries and whether it has been put into practice effectively for priority third countries.

They will examine the negotiating process of EU readmission agreements and arrangements, how priority countries were identified, the Commission’s support and incentives to third countries to improve readmission cooperation, and the sharing of best practices. 

Currently, there is no clear overview of EU funding for cooperation with third countries on the readmission of migrants.

Nevertheless, the auditors have identified around 60 projects linked to the readmission and reintegration of irregular migrants with a total value of €641 million.

They will focus on readmission cooperation with the 10 countries of origin with the highest numbers of non-returned irregular migrants (Syria excluded) and also assess the performance of 20 EU projects linked to the readmission and reintegration of irregular migrants in these countries. 

The European Commission wants to increase efforts to repatriate rejected asylum seekers.

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