Legal and Policy Infrastructures of Returns in the EU - Comparative Report (WP2)

Work Package 2 (WP2) of the GAPs Project (Legal and Policy Frameworks of Returns in the EU) focuses on the legal, institutional and policy frameworks regarding the return and readmission policies at the EU level and in the five selected EU member consortium countries (Sweden, Poland, Germany, Greece, Netherlands) as well as the related gaps. Three country snapshots of the non-consortium EU Member States (Italy, France, and Hungary) are also provided. This comparative report is based on the examination and comparison of the return policies of the selected countries through the country dossiers that are provided as annexes of this report (see other reports in GAPs-WP2 publication series). It aims to identify the commonalities and variances within their legal and policy structures concerning the return of migrants against the backdrop of overarching EU directives, particularly the EU Return Directive. This exploration includes a comprehensive examination of fundamental statistics, significant political changes in this realm, and a comparative analysis of the institutional frameworks. The core legal framework addressed in the report is distilled into three sub-sections, pinpointed byexamining the identified “gaps” across all reports. These prominent areas of concern, “Procedure to Issue Return Decisions”, “Procedural Safeguards and Non-Returnability”, and “Detention”, have been analysed comparatively.