The President of Senegal, Bassirou Dionaye Diakhar Faye, will visit the La Moncloa Palace today to sign an agreement through which his country will become Spain's first strategic partner in sub-Saharan Africa. In recent times, both countries have strengthened bilateral cooperation in various areas through the signing of several agreements, with immigration being one of them. It was precisely during an official visit to the Senegalese capital of Dakar in 2024 where our President, Pedro Sánchez, stated that it is "essential" to return those who arrive irregularly. A priority whose fulfillment has been stagnant at minimal levels for two years.
According to the latest update of the European Union database, in 2025 only 5,705 people were returned to third countries despite 53,695 individuals being ordered to do so that year; in other words, 10.6% of the cases were complied with, marking a new low in this matter.
This rate has increased by 1.53 points compared to the previous year, not because the Government has carried out more expulsions. In fact, between 2024 and 2025, 9,240 fewer sanctions have been issued (a decrease of 14.7%). Furthermore, following the declining trend in achieving returns, the number of people returned to third countries has dropped by 6.5% (395 fewer individuals).
However, the significant reason behind this slight improvement is that the update of the database has readjusted the figures for 2024. For that year, the information provided by Eurostat already depicted a scenario of minimal compliance with data collected until October of last year: by comparing the figures of issued orders and people returned after being sanctioned with expulsion, the completion of open cases was 17%.
However, the execution of expulsions for that year decreases to 9.07% according to the latest update of this data. Hence, a slight improvement in the compliance with cases can be noted, which, nevertheless, has reached a new low with this figure readjustment and remains stagnant at minimal levels. Once again, the European Union figures reflect a significant discrepancy indicating non-compliance with expulsion regulations.
More sanctions than irregular arrivals
Furthermore, the European entity's figures shed light on another relevant issue: the number of sanctions issued in 2025 exceeds the number of irregular arrivals to Spanish territory. According to the irregular immigration balances published biweekly by the Ministry of the Interior, 36,775 people reached Spanish soil irregularly last year. 53,695 expulsion orders were issued, sanctioning 16,920 more individuals than the immigrants who arrived irregularly.
This is the first time that the Spanish Government has issued a higher number of expulsion orders than immigrants arriving through this route. In 2021, 7,860 were issued compared to 28,729 arrivals; 10,920 sanctions against 31,219 arrivals in 2022; 10,645 against 56,852 arrivals in 2023, and 62,935 against 63,970 arrivals in 2024.
Looking at the figures of irregular arrivals more broadly, in the first half of this term - between 2023 and 2025 - a total of 157,597 individuals arrived irregularly in Spain. Out of the 127,275 foreigners (80.8%) who had an expulsion order issued against them during this period, only 18,090 left the territory, implying that the Government has executed only 11.5% of the sanctions issued in the last two years.
However, the figures provided by the Government for this period are very different. According to a parliamentary response sent by the Government to Congress to answer UPN deputy Alberto Catalán and reported by Servimedia, the Government would have expelled 9,519 foreigners in the last years of the term: 3,090 in 2023; 3,031 in 2024, and 3,398 in 2025.
In the information provided, the Government stated that there is currently no statistical treatment that allows knowing in detail how many issued expulsion orders are still pending execution.
Additionally, they estimate the total number of returns of irregular foreigners executed by the Sánchez Government at 20,682 individuals between 2019 and 2025. Considering the arrival figures provided by Fernando Grande-Marlaska's department during this period, 305,371 individuals entered the country through this route, the Government would have expelled only 6.78% of these individuals, highlighting that this is one of their pending tasks: fulfilling the priority outlined in Dakar.