VIDEO: Europe is building a stricter return system. But what does the evidence say?

While the EU moves towards a new common return system, three and a half years of research challenges some of the assumptions behind Europe’s return debate.

This summer, the EU gave its final approval for the new Return Regulation – see our reflection paper on the issue. The EU is moving towards a stricter common system for returning people back to their country of origin or to a return hub when they receive an order to return. The new framework aims to make returns more effective, by enhancing enforcement and cooperation between the EU countries.

But what happens when return does not work?

It is questionable whether the new plans will lead to more return. The new plans assume that returns can be boosted by deterrence policies such as longer detention, deportation of irregular migrants to so-called ‘return hubs’, but the research suggests that assisted return policies are generally more humane and effective.

Researchers from our Finding Agreement in Return (FAiR) project spent three and a half years examining what happens before, during and after return. An important finding is that there are limits to what return policies can achieve: people may not return because of many reasons, such as safety concerns, lack of readmission, health or other circumstances. The findings also suggest that what happens after return can determine whether policies actually succeed.

FAiR argues that the European debate needs to look beyond the question of how to increase the number of returns. Instead, it should consider what makes return policy work for EU countries, as well as for migrants and their countries of origin.

A new FAiR video brings this research into the public debate, explaining this complex policy area which is often reduced to numbers and political slogans.

MPG own evidence points to a clear conclusion: the EU is building a faster return system, but not a fairer one. Our Migrant Return Policy Index (MIREX), developed in the context of FAiR, assesses return policies across 9 EU countries, Switzerland and the UK against 53 human-rights based indicators. MIREX shows that the gaps the new EU policies deepen are already among the weakest points in Europe’s return system. Explore our interactive MIREX dashboard and see our full report.