In 2020, just 3,351 illegal migrants of the 34,133 who arrived in Italy that year were deported, but it still cost the Italian taxpayer millions of euros.
Despite only deporting just 9.8 per cent of illegal aliens, the cost of deportations amounted to €4.68 million (£3.97m/$5.52m). So far in 2021, the figure has remained high at €2,089,000 (£1.77m/$2.47m) for just 1,097 deportations.
Susanna Ceccardi, a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for Matteo Salvini’s League (Lega) party, said that the burden of deportations was being left on the shoulders of Italian taxpayers and criticised the “total indifference” of the European Union, Il Giornale reports.
“We had said from the start that this policy carried out by Brussels would be unsuccessful, but they blamed us for everything. The numbers, however, prove us right,” Ceccardi said, noting that because the arrival of migrants was treated in an emergency way, exact details of costs are unclear.
According to Il Giornale, the vast majority of the migrants deported in 2020 were from Tunisia, with 1,997 repatriations. This was followed by 544 Albanians, 181 Moroccans, and 91 Egyptians.
Figures in the first four months of 2021 have seen similar trends, with Tunisians being the largest number of those sent back to their home countries so far.
Deportations have been made more difficult due to other countries imposing travel restrictions to stop the spread of coronavirus.
Some migrants in Sweden even refused to take coronavirus tests to avoid being deported, as their home countries required a negative test to take them back.
In the last few weeks, several countries have also stopped deportations to Afghanistan due to deteriorating security issues as the Taliban advances.
Sweden halted all Afghan deportations in July and, consequently, has reportedly released many Afghan migrants previously in custody.