Over 1 Million Non-EU Citizens Were Found Illegally Present Across EU in 2022, Eurostat Reveals

According to the European Office for Statistics, Eurostat, 222,520 cases of people illegally staying in the country were reported in Hungary and another 198,310 in Germany, followed by 138,420 in Italy.

These countries represent more than half of all reports of this sort recorded last year, AtoZSerwisPlus.com reports.

The most reported nationalities are Syrians, with 175,960 of the people reported being of this nationality, followed by Afghanis (119,520) and Moroccans (60,215).

The latter is also the second-largest nationality that was ordered to leave the EU in 2022, as 30,510 were asked to leave the zone, ahead of Algerians 33,535) and Pakistanis (25,280). In general, 422,400 non-Europeans were ordered to leave the EU in 2022, up from 23 per cent or 342,100 that were asked to leave in 2021.

The country with the largest number of non-EU citizens ordered to leave was France, with 135,650 cases, followed by Croatia (40,525) and Greece (33,500). The number of people ordered to leave the EU in 2022 rose from 342,100 to 422,400, representing a 23 per cent increase.

The number of people that were returned to another country reached 96,795 in 2022, with Albanians being the main nationality with 9,950 cases, followed by Georgians (8,040) and Syrians (5,590).

France was the main reporting country of such cases – a total of 14,240, while Germany and Sweden reported 13,130 and 10,490 people returned to another country, respectively.

Eurostat data also show that Ukrainians, Albanians and Russians were the main nationalities refused entry to the EU in 2022, with the main countries where this happened to be Poland (23,330), Hungary (15,780), Croatia (11,800) and Ireland (9,240).

“Notably, the main reasons for refusing entry to Ukrainians were: ‘persons already stayed three months in a six-month period’ (27 per cent of the total refusals of Ukrainians in the EU), ‘no valid visa or residence permit’ (21 per cent) and ‘purpose and conditions of stay not justified’ (20 per cent),” Eurostat explains.

The number of people denied entry to the EU rose by one per cent in 2022 – from 139,000 to a total of 141,060. Similarly, to last year, Hungary and Germany were the main reporting countries with 134,140 and 120,285 cases, while in the previous year, Germany was a leading country for reporting the highest number of people illegally present in the country, with 117,930 cases.