News Item

Forced return monitoring across the EU – state of play

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AdobeStock / stockphoto mania, 2022
Each year, FRA provides an update of its overview of forced return monitoring systems across the EU. The 2021 overview is now online.

The overview looks at the developments across the EU. It covers staffing, training, reporting and the monitoring of return operations.

All EU countries monitor returns, but there are gaps.

Some countries monitor very few operations or they do not cover all steps in the process.

In addition, in some countries monitoring is temporary or depends on project funding. Monitoring stops when the funding dries up.

As in 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic in 2021 had an impact on return monitoring.

The overview does not cover the pool of forced return monitors under the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, Frontex.

FRA has published these updates since 2014.