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European Union migration ministers will discuss visa restrictions and better coordination within the bloc so they can deport more people without asylum in Europe back to their countries of origin, including Iraq, Reuters reports.

Three years after the 27-member EU agreed to restrict visas for countries deemed uncooperative in taking their citizens back, only The Gambia has been formally punished.

The European Commission proposed similar steps in Iraq, Senegal and Bangladesh, although two EU officials indicated that cooperation with Dhaka on returning people had since improved.

The EU expects the number of asylum applications to grow

However, the overall EU rate of effective deportation was 21% in 2021, according to the latest Eurostat figures.

This is a level that member states consider unacceptably low, said one EU official.

Immigration is a politically sensitive topic in the Union, where member states would rather discuss increasing deportations as well as reducing illegal immigration in the first place, rather than renew their disputes over how to share the task of caring for those reaching Europe and get the right to stay.

"Establishing an effective and common EU system of deportation is fundamental to well-functioning and reliable migration and asylum systems," the EC said in a statement to ministers.

According to the United Nations, in 2022 about 160,000 people crossed the Mediterranean Sea, the main route to Europe for those fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East, Africa and Southeast Asia.

In addition, nearly 8 million Ukrainian refugees were registered in countries of the Old Continent.

The ministers are meeting two weeks before the leaders of the EU's 27 member states gather in Brussels to discuss migration, and they are also expected to call for more deportations.

"Swift action is needed to ensure effective returns from the European Union to countries of origin, leveraging all relevant EU policies," read a draft of their joint statement seen by Reuters.

However, there are insufficient resources and coordination within the EU to ensure that every person without the right to stay is effectively returned or deported, according to the Commission.

Insufficient cooperation of countries of origin is an additional challenge, the position added.

Pressure from migration chiefs to punish some third countries with visa restrictions has in the past been against EU foreign and development ministers or failed due to conflicting agendas of different EU countries.

So far, there is not enough of a majority among EU countries to punish any country other than The Gambia, where people can no longer obtain multiple entry visas to enter the bloc and face longer waits.

While some EU countries such as Austria and Hungary strongly protest illegal immigration - mostly of Muslims - from the Middle East and North Africa, Germany is among countries seeking to open up their labor markets to much-needed workers from outside the bloc.

migrant pressure