The European Commission intends to respond to the increase in the number of illegal immigrants on the territory of the European Union with the help of a new strategy on deportations, European Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson said on Monday.

“Those who do not need international protection should return to their countries of origin,” Ylva Johansson said in Brussels, according to the German news agency DPA, as reported by Agerpres.

The representative of the Commission showed that more than 300,000 illegal migrants were registered in 2022 alone, most of whom did not have the right to receive asylum.

According to the Commission’s statement, an effective deportation strategy should work as a “deterrent”, helping to reduce migration in dangerous and illegal conditions.

The Reuters agency notes that the European Union has been trying to increase the pace of deportations for several years, but has so far achieved only limited success in this regard. The plan announced in 2021 was based on voluntary repatriation. The union also tried to use visa policy as a means of pressuring some countries to crack down on those denied asylum. However, Commission figures show that only 29% of those who were due to leave the EU in 2019 have done so.

The new strategy, announced on Tuesday, calls for better cooperation between EU member states and agencies such as Frontex, the European Border Police and Coast Guard Agency whose mission is to control Europe’s borders. The commission also intends to increase the level of deportation to countries with which it cooperates well and where there are no “political obstacles”, Johansson explained.

However, she and Marija Yurych, head of the Deportation Policy Coordination Commission, declined to provide target deportation figures, saying EU member states needed to be consulted and that the global situation was uncertain.