European Union officials are openly acknowledging that the bloc lost control of migration enforcement over the past decade and are now scrambling to reverse course as new asylum and deportation rules prepare to take effect next June.
European Commissioner for Internal Affairs and Migration Magnus Brunner said Tuesday that Europe is trying to “get control back” after years of weak border enforcement and failed deportation efforts that left millions of Europeans frustrated and fueled political backlash across the continent.
“Ten years ago, we didn’t have a system,” Brunner told reporters in Washington, D.C. “We didn’t have control over what is happening and who would come into the European Union and who would have to leave again.”
The comments reflected a dramatic shift in tone from European leaders, many of whom spent years defending looser migration policies and dismissing concerns about border security, assimilation and crime as exaggerated or politically motivated. Now, faced with rising support for nationalist parties and mounting public anger, EU officials are embracing tougher rhetoric and stricter enforcement measures that would have once drawn fierce criticism from Europe’s political left.
The numbers help explain the growing panic among EU leaders.
Despite ordering hundreds of thousands of migrants to leave Europe over the years, the bloc has struggled to actually deport most of them. According to Eurostat data, only about one-quarter to one-third of migrants ordered removed are ever returned to their home countries. That means the overwhelming majority remain somewhere inside Europe even after exhausting asylum claims or violating immigration rules.
Brunner admitted the system has badly underperformed, though he argued things are improving. He said deportation rates have climbed from roughly 20% to nearly 30%, but acknowledged Europe still faces enormous challenges enforcing its own laws.
The EU’s new migration and asylum pact is designed specifically to address those failures. Under the upcoming rules, migrants arriving illegally will face mandatory screening at external EU borders, including biometric identification and security checks. Their asylum claims will be processed much faster, often within weeks, and rejected applicants will be placed on accelerated deportation tracks.
The bloc is also expanding the use of “safe third countries,” allowing migrants to be deported to countries outside the European Union as officials attempt to reduce the backlog of failed asylum seekers remaining inside Europe.
The tougher approach marks a significant reversal for many European governments that previously resisted stricter enforcement measures championed by conservatives in both Europe and the United States.
President Donald Trump has repeatedly warned that mass migration was “destroying” Europe, while Vice President JD Vance has argued European leaders risk “civilizational suicide” if they continue allowing uncontrolled migration flows.
European officials are now increasingly framing migration not only as an economic issue but also as a security threat. Brunner pointed to new screening systems that identified hundreds of individuals considered potential security risks among recent arrivals.
“Out of these 30,000, we had 750 people who actually posed a security threat to the European Union,” he said.
The renewed urgency comes after a series of violent attacks across Europe involving migrants or individuals with migrant backgrounds, including recent terrorist incidents in Britain and elsewhere that reignited public debate over integration and radicalization.
Brunner also accused Russia and Belarus of deliberately weaponizing migration against Europe by funneling migrants toward EU borders in what he described as “hybrid warfare.”
At the same time, European leaders are trying to reassure voters that tighter enforcement is necessary to preserve support for legal immigration and legitimate asylum protections.
“If you want to get the support of the people in Europe, then they must have the feeling that we have control of what we’re doing,” Brunner said. “People in Europe will only accept continuing and granting asylum … if they are sure that the system is not abused.”
The remarks underscored how dramatically Europe’s migration debate has shifted. Policies and border controls once condemned by many left-leaning politicians as overly harsh are increasingly being adopted by mainstream European governments struggling to contain public anger over migration and the inability to deport those ordered to leave.
