After the Ukrainians, Albanians were the most rejected on the EU borders in 2021

In 2021, some 139,000 non-EU nationals were denied entry to the European Union at one of its external borders, up 1% from 137,800 last year.

Eurostat announced that the citizens of Ukraine accounted for the largest number of rejections in 2021 (50,200), followed by the citizens of Albania with about 18,600 rejections and Moldova with 9,100 rejections.

The largest number of entry refusals in 2021 was reported by Hungary (34,700), followed by Poland (26,200), Croatia (14,200) and Romania (11,000).

Citizens illegally present in the EU increased by 2% compared to 2020. In 2021, around 681,200 citizens outside the EU were found to be illegally present in the EU. This was 22% compared to 2020 (557,500).

France reported the largest number of non-EU nationals present illegally in 2021 (215,200), followed by Hungary (134,100) and Germany (120,300).

Syrians made up the largest number of people illegally present in the EU in 2021 (79,800). The next highest figures were recorded for the citizens of Algeria (56,800) and Afghanistan (52,800).

In 2021, around 342,100 non-EU nationals were ordered to leave the territory of the EU Member States, a decrease of 14% compared to a year earlier (396,400).

Among EU member states, France reported the largest number of non-EU nationals ordered to leave its territory in 2021 (125,500), followed by Germany (31,500) and Greece (28,800).

In 2021, the largest number of people ordered to leave the territory of an EU member state was observed among Algerians (26,400), Albanians (22,000) and Moroccans (21,800).

In 2021, some 82,700 non-EU nationals returned to another country following an order to leave the territory of a given EU member state.

France reported the largest number of non-EU nationals returning in 2021 (14,400), followed by Germany (10,300) and Sweden (9,300).

Ukrainians and Albanians (9,400 each) topped the list of non-EU nationals returning to another country in 2021, followed by Georgians (5,400) and Pakistanis (3,200) ./ Monitor