Europe continues to strengthen its immigration policies. In 2023, the figures reveal a significant drop in accepted entry applications, with 118,935 applications refused, a decrease of 16% compared to the previous year when 142,420 applications were refused.
This drop is mainly explained by the tightening of immigration and reception conditions for foreign nationals in several European countries.
The Champions of Refusal at Borders
Surveillance at land borders is particularly strict in Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Poland, Hungary, Romania and Estonia, where 70% of entry attempts have been refused.
For air borders, Ireland stands out with the highest number of refusals, totaling 6840 requests, closely followed by Spain and Germany with 6440 and 5815 refusals respectively.
Concerning maritime borders, France and Italy lead with respectively 1345 and 1225 requests refused in 2023.
France at the top of expulsions
According to Eurostat data, France is positioned at the top of European countries in terms of expulsions of foreign nationals, representing 14% of total expulsions in the European Union in 2022.
Germany and Sweden follow with more than 13,000 and 12,000 expulsions respectively.
Profile of the Expelled
The main groups affected by these policies are nationals of Algeria, Morocco and Pakistan, with respectively 33,535, 35,510 and 25,280 individuals required to leave EU territory in 2022.
Efforts to balance security and human rights remain at the heart of debates over European immigration.
