Fight against irregular immigration, publication of 25 January 2024

Removals of foreigners in an irregular situation continue their upward trend in 2023 (+10.7%, provisional data), without yet returning to pre-Covid-19 levels. --------- **Note:** The breakdown of removals of illegal aliens is broken down into three types reflecting different ways of dealing with irregular immigration: 1. Forced removals (A), characterised by the taking over of an expulsion decision and its enforcement by coercion, which include the following categories: - Returns of third-country nationals outside the European Union; - Readmission of third-country nationals to the European Union; - Returns of EU nationals to their countries. 2. Assisted removals (B), characterized by the implementation of an unconstrained removal measure, through return assistance. 3. Spontaneous removals (C), without constraint and without assistance, after an expulsion measure, the accounting of which is necessarily partial. In addition, aliens in an irregular situation may decide to leave the territory without having been the subject of a removal order, while having recourse to assistance. These are assisted voluntary departures (D). Finally, when an illegal alien presents himself at the border, even though he has not been the subject of a prior expulsion decision, his exit from the territory is taken into account as a "spontaneous departure" (E). Not all departures of this type are known.