How many illegal migrants have been deported from European countries

1. What the official totals say: returns vs. orders to leave

Eurostat’s enforcement dataset distinguishes between administrative “orders to leave” and “returns” actually carried out; for 2023 the EU recorded 484,160 orders to leave and 111,185 returns following such orders, meaning roughly one in four ordered departures was enforced in that year’s statistics ^[1]. Those returned include people removed to third countries and transfers between EU/EFTA states; Eurostat also publishes quarterly breakdowns and country-level figures to reflect seasonal and national variation ^{[5] [6]}.

2. Why headlines about deportations diverge: definitions and scope

Comparisons across sources are fraught because Eurostat counts administrative orders that may never be enforced, while other datasets use different legal triggers or narrower definitions—U.S. TRAC data, for example, only counts formal removals by immigration judges, illustrating why cross‑jurisdictional comparisons can’t be treated as equivalent ^[7]. NGOs warn that there is no up‑to‑date, reliable estimate of the stock of undocumented migrants in Europe, which complicates any attempt to express deportations as a share of the undocumented population ^[8].

3. Country and route snapshots show concentrated activity, not a single Europe‑wide “deportation” machine

Some EU members consistently report the largest numbers of enforced returns in short periods—France, Germany and Sweden were among the leaders in enforced removals in the second quarter of 2024, with France recording 3,870 enforced deportations in that quarter alone—while Statista and other compilations identify national origin groups and route trends for particular years ^{[9] [10]}. At the same time, Frontex and flow monitors document hundreds of thousands of illegal border crossings in recent years (around 331,000–380,000 detected in 2022–2023), underscoring why enforcement activity remains intense and uneven across routes ^{[2] [3]}.

4. Trends and policy context: more enforcement on paper, mixed results in practice

European institutions and some member states have stepped up proposals and operations to increase returns, and internal documents and reporting signal plans to scale Frontex’s role and deportation capacity—including historical figures showing Frontex‑assisted returns and proposals to boost coordination—yet implementation, legal reviews and practical obstacles mean enforced returns remain a subset of total orders ^{[8] [4]}. Officials have also acknowledged low voluntary compliance: commentators cited a figure of only about 20% of rejected applicants leaving the EU voluntarily in recent reporting, which helps explain the persistence of orders without returns ^[11].

5. Limits of the record and what cannot be concluded from available data

Eurostat provides the best harmonised EU/EFTA picture but does not produce a single “how many illegal migrants have been deported from European countries” number that covers all states of Europe, all legal definitions, or extraterritorial practices; it also omits undocumented people never detected and cannot reconcile different national counting methods or detention‑based removals handled without formal return orders ^{[5] [6] [8]}. Independent datasets (IOM, DTM, Frontex compilations, NGO reports) add context on crossings and risks but do not replace the administrative return figures ^{[12] [13]}.

Conclusion: the closest authoritative, recent EU‑level figure is Eurostat’s 111,185 returns in 2023 following orders to leave, with 484,160 orders to leave issued that year—numbers that must be read alongside large detection figures, divergent national practices and acknowledged gaps in voluntary or enforced compliance across Europe ^{[1] [2] [3]}.