More than 108,000 non-EU citizens were ordered to leave an EU country in the first three months of 2026, while 34,550 people were returned to countries outside the bloc.
A total of 108,475 non-EU citizens received an order to leave between January and March, Eurostat informed on Tuesday.
The number of people returned to “third countries” — countries outside the EU — after an order to leave was 34,550.
Compared with the same period in 2025, the number of non-EU citizens ordered to leave fell by 12.8%, while returns to third countries rose by 8.1%.
Compared with the previous quarter, orders to leave dropped by 7.9% and returns increased by 2.0%.
The largest groups ordered to leave in the first quarter of 2026 were citizens of Algeria (11,105), Morocco (6,435) and Syria (5,355).
The largest groups returned to third countries were citizens of Turkey (3,555), Georgia (2,060) and Albania (2,050).
France recorded the highest number of orders to leave
France recorded the highest number of non-EU citizens ordered to leave, at 34,880, followed by Germany (10,360) and Spain (9,275), according to Eurostat.
Germany recorded the highest number of people returned to third countries, at 7,300, followed by France (3,775) and Poland (2,660).
