EU returns to third countries up 8 per cent in the first quarter of 2026

Brussels – The number of non-EU citizens being returned from the European Union is increasing. According to Eurostat, the EU’s statistical office, in the first three months of 2026, 108,475 people received removal orders from Member States and 34,550 were returned to third countries.

Compared with the first quarter of 2025, the number of non-EU citizens ordered to leave the Union fell by 12.8 per cent, while the number of returnees rose by 8.1 per cent. When comparing the figures with the previous quarter – that is, the last three months of last year – the percentage of people served with a deportation order fell by 7.9 per cent, while repatriations rose by 2 per cent.

Most non-EU nationals ordered to leave an EU country in the first quarter of 2026 were from Algeria (11,105), Morocco (6,435), and Syria (5,355). As regards those who were returned, the top three nationalities were Turkey (3,555), Georgia (2,060), and Albania (2,050).

Eurostat notes that the highest numbers of deportations occurred in France (34,880), Germany (10,360), and Spain (9,275). Furthermore, Germany (7,300), France (3,775), and Poland (2,660) recorded the highest numbers of returns. In the first three months of 2026, Italy issued 4,900 expulsion orders, down from 5,340 in the final quarter of last year and 5,230 in the first quarter of 2025. Italy repatriated 1,900 people in the first quarter of this year, up from 1,270 in the fourth quarter of 2025 and 1,250 in the first quarter of 2025.