Migration to Europe is falling, so why are countries pushing on with crackdown?

"Asylum requests to the European Union, Switzerland and Norway fell by 23 percent in the first six months of 2025, driven by a massive drop in Syrians seeking protection, new EU data showed Monday. Similarly, irregular border crossings detected into the 27-nation bloc were down 20 percent in the same period, according to EU border agency Frontex, with arrivals via the Balkans sharply down."

"But regardless of the picture the data paints, with right and hard-right parties ascendant across the bloc, the pressure to get tough on migration has never been higher. "At the political level, there's this sense that we have to respond to citizens' concerns" on migration," summed up Camille Le Coz, director of the Migration Policy Institute Europe think tank. For parties pushing a hard line, a fall in migrant arrivals only deals with part of the problem."

""It cannot be the only parameter to take into account," Fabrice Leggeri, the former head of Frontex, now a European lawmaker with France's far-right National Rally party, told AFP. "An increase in returns" is also needed, he contended. Currently, fewer than 20 percent of people ordered to leave the bloc are returned to their country of origin, according to EU data."

Asylum requests to the EU, Switzerland and Norway fell 23 percent in the first half of 2025, led by a large decline in Syrians seeking protection. Frontex reported irregular border crossings into the 27-nation bloc were down 20 percent, with Balkans arrivals sharply reduced. Right and hard-right parties are ascendant across Europe, increasing pressure for tougher migration policies focused on returns and deterrence. Fewer than 20 percent of people ordered to leave the bloc are actually returned. The EU agreed a migration pact tightening border procedures and is proposing measures to speed up returns, detention and external return centres.

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