The number of persons determined to be unlawfully present in the European Union climbed by 22% to over 700,000 in 2021.
Syrians accounted for the most people, followed by Algerians and Afghans. Following the Taliban’s takeover of the nation in August, the number of Afghans grew by around 55 percent compared to 2020.
Men made up roughly 87 percent of the overall number recorded by Eurostat, with more than half of them being between the ages of 18 and 34.
In all, 681,200 non-EU nationals were discovered to be unlawfully present in the EU’s 27 nations in 2021, up 123,700 from the previous year but down 67 percent from a high in 2015, when more than a million people fled Syria and other wars to seek asylum in the EU.
Those who entered the bloc illegally as well as those who overstayed their visas were included in the total.
France had the most, with 215,200 people, a 107 percent increase from 2020.
Hungary and Germany come in second and third, respectively. The three nations accounted for roughly 70% of all non-EU nationals in the bloc who were unlawfully there.
In 2021, Ukrainians accounted for the largest number of persons denied entrance to the EU, with almost 50,200 rejections out of 139,000.
Rejected Ukrainians attempted to enter Hungary, Poland, and, to a lesser extent, Romania across land borders.
From 2020 to 2021, the number of non-EU individuals served with orders to leave a member state declined by roughly 14%, with France issuing the most orders (37%), more than any other member state.
According to Eurostat, while more than half of the returnees were forced, 47% left the region willingly.
According to Eurostat, the majority of rejected admissions were owing to the individual’s purpose and terms of stay not being justified, while 29 percent were also due to the person being deemed a public threat.
