Fortress Europe: Migration flashpoints in 2025

• EU leaders push for tougher migration rules
• Calls for outsourcing asylum procedures grow
• Rights groups say hard line policies endanger lives

BRUSSELS/LONDON - European countries have tightened migration policies this year, with more changes expected, despite a 38% drop in illegal migrant entries last year to the lowest level since 2021.

Elections this year have seen far-right, anti-migration parties grow in popularity and immigration remains a politically charged topic in the bloc's 27 member states.

European countries have stepped up border controls, cracked down on smuggling gangs and outsourced asylum processing while EU lawmakers approved a major asylum policy overhaul in May last year to reduce irregular arrivals.

The new measures will apply from 2026, but right-wing parties say they do not go far enough.

Governments have also tried to speed up security and asylum procedures at external EU borders, increase returns, and support countries, such as Italy, where thousands arrive illegally by boat.

Rights groups say there is an increased risk of arbitrary detention and repatriations to countries where asylum seekers are at risk of violence or unfair imprisonment, while lawyers say there could be an increase in court challenges.

Here's a roundup of European migration flashpoints:

GERMANY

Germany's new interior minister, Alexander Dobrindt, issued an order in May to reject undocumented migrants arriving at the country's borders.

Before becoming Germany's chancellor this month, Friedrich Merz promised to crack down on migration after a spate of violent crimes by migrants helped boost support for the far right.

His coalition government has agreed to allow deportations to Syria, suspend family reunions, boost border police numbers and is considering plans to process asylum applications abroad.

Germany received the EU's largest number of asylum applications in 2024, although Cyprus received the most applications per capita.

BRITAIN

Britain announced sweeping immigration reforms this month to cut net migration over the next four years.

The new rules will raise the level of English immigrants must attain, increase the time it takes to get citizenship, and prevent companies, including care homes, from recruiting abroad.

Although the Labour government scrapped the previous Conservative administration's plans to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda, 'safe third countries' are back on the agenda.

The government is in talks with unspecified countries about sending migrants who have been refused the right to stay in Britain and run out of legal options to avoid deportation.

FRANCE

France, which called snap parliamentary elections in 2024, amid a surge in far-right support, has seen immigration policy hardened under the new interior minister Bruno Retailleau. 

New government data released in February showed deportations rose 27% in 2024 to 22,000, with 13,000 people forcibly removed, 5,000 given assistance to leave and 4,000 spontaneously leaving.

Rights groups say the new rules put individuals at risk by forcing them to return to unsafe or unstable countries, separated from family and without adequate healthcare.

ITALY

Italy became the first EU country to have a non-EU state process migrants on its behalf when Albania agreed last year to host up to 36,000 migrants a year.

Two purpose-built centres received the first migrants in October 2024, but some were returned to Italy within days after an Italian court ruled they could not be held in Albania due to concerns over their legal status.

Rome now plans to transform one of the centres into a repatriation hub, in a bid to overcome the legal hurdles.

SPAIN

Spain plans to legalise around 300,000 undocumented immigrants a year over the next three years as it seeks to expand its labour force due to its ageing population. A draft bill is being debated by parliamentary groups.

Thousands of underage migrants will also be relocated from the Canary Islands to the mainland as the islands are struggling to cope with record numbers of arrivals.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez also struck a series of deals with Mauritania last August to combat people smuggling networks and curb migration from West Africa.

POLAND

The EU approved in December Poland's plan to temporarily suspend the right to asylum in order to counter "hybrid threats" and the "weaponisation of migration" by Russia and Belarus.

Rights activists have said the move is against the constitution and would force migrants into the hands of people smugglers.

This article was updated on May 22nd, 2025 with new policy details and other developments.

(Reporting by Joanna Gill in Brussels and Lin Taylor in London; Editing by Jon Hemming.)