This ad hoc query examines how EMN Member and Observer Countries use service providers for return and reintegration services. It covers whether countries manage operations directly or rely on service providers, details on contracts and procurement methods used, and how they assess European Procurement Regulations when choosing procurement approaches, including any exceptions justifying direct contracts.

According to Eurostat, the number of people returned to another country increased by 11% in the first quarter of 2024 compared with the same quarter of 2023. In comparison with the previous quarter (fourth quarter of 2023), the number of returns went up by 6%.

According to the 2024 Global Trends Report from UNHCR, one in every 69 people, or 1.5 % of the entire world’s population, is now forcibly displaced. The rise in overall forced displacement was the 12th consecutive annual increase and reflects both new and mutating conflicts and a failure to resolve long-standing crises. 

Today the European Commissioner for Home Affairs, Ylva Johansson, traveled to Tunisia, showing the importance of the migration partnership between Tunisia and the EU and the willingness for such partnership to be deepened in cooperation with the EU Member States. 

In the fourth quarter of 2022 (Q4 2022), there were 123 865 non-EU citizens ordered to leave an EU country (+11% compared with Q3 2022), and 28 155 non-EU citizens were returned to another country (including other EU countries) following an order to leave (+9% compared with Q3 2022). 

The return of irregular migrants is one of the main pillars of the EU’s policy on migration and asylum. In this light the EMN will conduct in 2017 a study on ‘The effectiveness of return in EU Member States: challenges and good practices linked to EU rules and standards‘. The synthesis report of this study is expected to be published at the end of 2017. The Belgian national report will probably be published at the beginning of 2018.