Estonian border guard chief has commented on Estonia sending 90% of migrants, who have seen their asylum applications rejected in the Baltic country as the necessary signal. Other EU members, meanwhile, succeed in deporting 30% of the migrants they have not granted asylum to, Estonian public broadcaster ERR reports.
In 2020, Estonia saw one of the lowest numbers of asylum requests in the EU, estimated as three per 100,000 people. To compare – the highest proportion was in Cyprus with 841 claims per 100,000 people.
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Egert Belitšev is the deputy director general of the Estonian Police and Border Guard in the area of border control. He evaluated that the EU’s total figure for deportations is low.
«In reality, this also sends a message to third countries – that if you enter illegally, there is a probability of two-thirds that you can stay in the European Union, which is not the signal we should send,» Belitšev noted. Estonia explains its comparatively high rate of deportation with low overall numbers of migrants, good relations with migrants’ homelands and the willingness of countries, such as Moldova, Ukraine and Russia, to accept their citizens back, ERR reports.
Estonia feels it sends right signal by deporting 90% of rejected migrants
