Overview
- Government data released Thursday showed 4,807 forced returns in the first quarter, down 1,344 from a year earlier and the first drop after five years of increases.
- The biggest driver was a sharp fall in EU “Dublin” transfers, which send people to the member state responsible for their asylum case, sliding from 1,715 to 889 as strict timelines and low acceptance rates curbed handovers.
- The Iran war cut airline routes and made charter flights harder to run, which reduced removals to parts of the Middle East, and Iraq fell out of the top destinations after 157 returns in early 2025.
- Turkey, Georgia and North Macedonia received the most deportees, while only three people were sent to Syria and three to Iran, and the returns included 547 children and 99 people over 60.
- The numbers fueled political friction as Left party lawmaker Clara Bünger called deportations to Iran “fundamentally wrong,” and several states imposed or maintained pauses on Iran removals.