EuroWire, LUXEMBOURG: Returns of non-EU citizens from the European Union to third countries rose 13% in the fourth quarter of 2025 from a year earlier, even as the number of people ordered to leave the bloc declined, according to data released by Eurostat on March 31. The EU statistics office said 33,860 people were returned to third countries in the October to December period following an order to leave, while 117,545 non-EU citizens were ordered to leave an EU country during the same quarter.
Compared with the fourth quarter of 2024, the number of non-EU citizens ordered to leave fell 6.1%, while the number returned to third countries increased 13.0%, Eurostat said. On a quarter to quarter basis, the figures were slightly softer. Orders to leave declined 4.4% from the third quarter of 2025, while the number of returns to third countries edged down 0.9%. The figures point to a year-on-year rise in removals even as the overall number of new departure orders moved lower.
Among those ordered to leave in the fourth quarter, Algerian citizens accounted for the largest group at 12,455, followed by Moroccans at 7,385 and citizens of Türkiye at 5,225. Among those returned to third countries, citizens of Türkiye formed the biggest group at 3,155, followed by Georgians at 2,390 and Syrians at 2,105. The data provide one of the clearest quarterly snapshots of how EU countries are applying return decisions across nationalities and how those patterns differ between enforcement orders and completed returns.
National patterns across the bloc
France recorded the highest number of non-EU citizens ordered to leave in the fourth quarter at 34,040, well ahead of Spain at 12,380 and Germany at 10,720, Eurostat said. For completed returns to third countries, Germany ranked first with 7,690, followed by France with 3,800 and Sweden with 2,870. The figures show that the countries issuing the highest number of departure orders are not always the same as those carrying out the largest number of returns in a given quarter.
The quarterly data fit into a broader annual pattern already visible in Eurostat’s 2024 migration figures. Across the full year 2024, 453,000 non-EU citizens were ordered to leave an EU country, down 8% from 2023, while 110,000 people were returned to a country outside the EU, up 19%. Germany recorded 15,200 annual returns outside the EU, France 14,700, Sweden 9,900 and Cyprus 8,900. Eurostat also said 919,000 non-EU citizens were found to be illegally present in the EU in 2024, while 124,000 were refused entry at the bloc’s external borders.
Policy focus sharpens on returns
The latest figures were released as EU institutions continue work on a broader overhaul of return rules. The European Commission proposed a common EU return system in March 2025, saying return rates across the bloc stood at around 20% and arguing that current procedures were too fragmented. The proposal set out common procedures for issuing return decisions, a European Return Order to accompany national decisions, and mutual recognition of return decisions so one member state could enforce a decision issued by another without starting a new process.
On March 9, 2026, the European Parliament’s Civil Liberties Committee adopted its position on the proposed reform, backing measures that would require non-EU nationals subject to return decisions to cooperate with authorities and setting out conditions for detention in some cases for up to 24 months. The draft also says return decisions would be shared across the Schengen area and recognised by other EU countries from July 1, 2027, under the Commission proposal. Eurostat added that Cyprus was included in EU calculations for returns only from 2024 onward because 2023 data were unavailable under temporary derogations.