Cyprus Leads Europe in Deporting 70 per Cent of Arriving Illegals in 2022

So far this year, Cyprus has deported around 70 per cent of all arriving illegals — showing countries like Britain that large-scale returns are not impossible after all.

Cyprus’ Interior Minister Nicos Nouris announced the figures this week, noting an increase from last year, in which the country deported just 17 per cent of the illegals who had come to Cyprus.

The nearly 7,000 deportations come as the country has seen a surge of illegal migrant arrivals in recent years, making it the country with the most asylum seekers — and the most deportations — per capita of any country in the European Union, the newspaper Ekathimerini reports.

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According to the European Union-funded website InfoMigrants, the large increase in deportations from Cyprus is linked to agreements signed between the island’s government and various third countries including India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Vietnam — although the Cypriot government has not actually released a breakdown of the nationalities of those deported this year.

The figures are a stark contrast with the meagre number of deportations elsewhere in Europe, such as the United Kingdom.

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Britain is not alone in Western Europe in failing to tackle illegal immigration, however, with France’s deportation figures being similarly dismal in recent years.

French media reports that in the first half of 2021, just six per cent of deportation orders were actually followed, and even prior to coronavirus the figure was still just 12 per cent.

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