The European Union has called on member states to deport more illegal immigrants who do not meet residency requirements.
The union said that only one in five potential migrants should be repatriated.
“Last year we had only 21 percent of those who have no right to stay,” EU Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson told reporters at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France. “When we fail to bring people back, it undermines our systems and undermines trust.”
Johansson noted that last year there were 340,000 decisions to deport people in EU member states, but only in 60 percent of cases did European authorities try to contact the countries of origin of migrants to take them back.
“In order to protect the right to apply for asylum, we must show that we treat those who are not entitled to international protection properly,” she added. “We need migration, but it must be legal and orderly.”
The arrival of over a million migrants in 2015, most of them fleeing war in Syria or Iraq, sparked one of the biggest political crises in the European Union.
Member countries disagree on who should be responsible for the entry of migrants and whether other members should be required to help.
Source: AB