EU urges members to deport more migrants ineligible to stay

The European Union on Tuesday urged its member countries to deport more people who enter Europe without authorization and who are not eligible to stay, saying that only around one in five would-be migrants who should be sent home actually is.

"Last year, we had a return rate of only 21% of those who are not eligible to stay," EU Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson told reporters at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France. "When we fail to return people, this hampers our system and erodes trust."

Johansson said that 340,000 decisions were handed down in EU member nations last year to deport people, but that only in 60% of cases did European authorities try to contact the migrants' home countries to get them accepted back in.

"To protect the right to apply for asylum we have to show that we are appropriately dealing with those who do not qualify for...