EU wants to send more migrants back to Asia, Africa, Middle East
European Union migration ministers meet on Thursday to discuss visa restrictions and better coordination inside the bloc to be able to send more people with no right to asylum in Europe back to their home countries.
Three years after the 27-nation European Union agreed to restrict visas for countries deemed failing to cooperate on taking their people back, only Gambia has been formally punished.
The EU's executive European Commission proposed similar steps vis-a-vis Iraq, Senegal and Bangladesh, though two EU officials said cooperation with Dhaka on returning people has since improved.
Still, the EU's overall rate of effective returns stood at 21% in 2021, according to Eurostat data, the latest available.
Some 160,000 people made it across the Mediterranean in 2022, according to United Nation data, the main route to Europe for people fleeing wars and poverty in the Middle East, Africa and Southeast Asia. On top of that, nearly 8 million Ukrainian refugees were also registered across Europe.
The ministers meet two weeks before the 27 EU national leaders gather in Brussels to discuss migration, and are also expected to call to send more people away.
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