Press release: New EU Return Directive contradicts research findings

No. 66 - 16.04.2025

Fact-check on deportations in Germany published

In March 2025, the European Commission presented an initial draft of a new EU Return Directive to the European Parliament. The policies proposed in the Directive are essentially following the tightening and restrictions that Germany has already practised in recent years to return non-EU nationals. According to the research team of the MORE project in Germany – a consortium of 11 institutions across Europe researching return and deportation policies across Europe – these policies are inefficient and achieve the opposite of what they promise. In order to contribute to an objective and informed debate, researchers from Göttingen University have compiled and published a fact-check, drawing from previous research findings.

The draft of the new EU Return Directive includes proposals to extend the detention period before deportation to 24 months. In addition, the law would increase monitoring and impose harsher penalties on migrants who would be legally obliged to actively cooperate in clarifying their residence status. In doing so, it adopts the regulations established in Germany with the 2019 “Orderly Return Act”, which means that people can be detained if they fail to fulfil these obligations to cooperate.

The research team evaluates these forced return policies and concludes that they are highly ineffective in terms of achieving deportations more efficiently. “Our research to date shows that the return policies have created an inefficient bureaucratic monster,” says Professor Sabine Hess at Göttingen University’s Institute of Cultural Anthropology/European Ethnology, summarising their results. “Our research makes it clear that long-term residence permits and access to society would be more effective in reducing the number of people required to leave.” According to the researchers, residence permits, as set out in sections 25a, 25b and 104c of the Residence Act, would be much more effective in reducing stress and overwork for the authorities, in addition to reducing the cost.

“Another key finding of our research is that the return policies that have been pushed since 2015 do not contribute to greater security. On the contrary, we conclude that return policies promote poverty-related crime,” adds Svenja Schurade, a research associate at the same institute. These tendencies can also be found in the new push at the EU level, which is characterised by imposing bureaucratic obligations that are both difficult to understand and comply with on people and punishing them with benefit cuts for any violation. “Our research also shows that migrants can sometimes get caught up in a spiral of crime, often beyond their control, as a consequence of minor offences,” explains Selmar Krug, a research associate at the institute.

Further information:

In English: summaries of the research results, “Development of the Return and Readmission policy across Europe: multilevel analysis”: https://www.moreproject-horizon.eu/executive-summaries/

In German: Fact check on deportations in Germany: Svenja Schurade, Selmar Krug: “Quo vadis Abschiebungen in Deutschland?!”, March 2025: https://uni-goettingen.de/de/697214.html

Contact:

Professor Sabine Hess

University of Göttingen

Faculty of Humanities

Institute of Cultural Anthropology / European Ethnology

Heinrich-Düker-Weg 14, 37073 Göttingen, Germany

Tel: +49 (0)551 39-25349

Email: shess@uni-goettingen.de