The leadership of the European Union is planning an arsenal of increased power and common use to drastically tackle illegal immigration.

The new deportation system being promoted by the European Commission for Migration and Home Affairs adopts the core principles of the policy already implemented by the Greek government. It incorporates proposals submitted by the Minister for Migration and Asylum, Makis Voridis, and includes, among other measures: forced deportations, detentions of up to two years for illegal immigrants, incentives for voluntary departures, and restrictive measures against third countries that refuse to take back their nationals who are found illegally in Europe.

This new framework represents Europe‘s final effort to address long-standing failures in its immigration policy and to limit the disastrous social, economic, and political consequences of illegal immigration. The data clearly reflect the troubling reality: only 2 out of 10 illegal immigrants are deported.

A reversed reading of the figures perhaps highlights the severity of the problem even more starkly: 80% of the thousands of illegal immigrants entering almost daily through Europe’s land and sea borders remain permanently in Europe and move almost freely among member states, exploiting a fragmented and non-interoperable system for managing people who seek but are not entitled to asylum.

Incentives for Departures and Forced Deportation

The main directions of the EU’s new plan will be presented this coming Tuesday by Mr. Voridis to the relevant parliamentary committee. According to sources, the measures being promoted aim to address the main dysfunctions — namely, to establish a unified, common, and mandatory framework for all member states that will decisively correct the negative balance between illegal immigrant inflows and deportations. The central tenets of the new model closely follow the Greek minister’s doctrine: “Those who are not entitled to asylum are illegal and must be repatriated.”

The new system aims to strengthen voluntary departures through the provision of incentives, alongside clear messaging that refusal to cooperate will result in detention and forced deportation. Among the proposals under consideration by the relevant European bodies is the provision of financial assistance as an incentive for voluntary departure — an amount that would be significantly lower than the cost of continued stay in the member states.

Forced returns will be mandated for individuals who, despite being offered facilitated departure options, do not cooperate, destroy their travel documents, flee to another member state, or pose a security threat. Refusal to cooperate will also trigger a series of escalating restrictive measures, including: reduction or elimination of benefits and allowances, confiscation of identity documents, and mandatory appearances before the authorities every three days. Specifically, when there is a risk of flight or when an individual poses a security threat (e.g., has committed a criminal offense), detention in closed centers is foreseen for up to 24 months (instead of the current 18 months).

Deportation from the Entire EU

A key innovation of the proposed regulation is the mutual recognition of relevant decisions through the issuance of a European return order. In its initial phase, this order will allow EU member states to automatically recognize, without additional procedures, return decisions issued by another member state (note: after the first year of implementation, acceptance of the European return order will become mandatory). In this way, a deportation order issued, for example, in Greece will constitute an order of removal from the entire EU.

The European return order—a document recording the essential elements of the return decision—will be immediately uploaded to the Schengen Information System, which will function as a shared database. The objective of implementing a European return order is to strengthen the EU-wide effect of return decisions and to deter individuals from fleeing and moving to another member state, as doing so will no longer improve their chances of remaining in the EU. This is expected to encourage compliance and provide incentives for cooperation by individuals returning to their country of origin.

Cooperation with Countries of Origin

A crucial factor for the success of the new mechanism is the cooperation of the countries of origin of illegal immigrants. To this end, the relevant European committee will continuously monitor whether countries such as Afghanistan, Syria, Pakistan, and others—under existing bilateral or multilateral agreements—accept readmission requests for their citizens who have entered the EU illegally. In cases of inadequate cooperation, visa restrictions will be imposed, and proposals currently under development include even stricter sanctions.

Return Centers

At the same time, as part of more drastic solutions, several European governments have proposed offering incentives to third countries to accept the establishment of return facilities on their territory. These centers would be used exclusively for illegal immigrants who have received a final return decision. Families and unaccompanied minors would be excluded.