- Irregular border crossings into the Schengen area fell by 26 percent during 2025 according to latest reports.
- The EU achieved its highest return rate in a decade, reaching 28 percent for irregular migrants.
- Digital integration has increased daily biometric fingerprint checks from 17,000 to 87,000 across the zone.
(EUROPEAN UNION) — The European Commission published its 2026 State of Schengen Report on May 18, 2026, saying irregular border crossings into the Schengen area fell by 26% in 2025 from a year earlier as the bloc expanded digital border controls and pushed a more unified return system.
The report said the drop brought irregular arrivals at the EU’s external borders to their lowest level since 2021. It also said the Return Rate for irregular migrants reached 28% in 2025, the highest level recorded in the last decade.
European officials tied the decline to tighter coordination with transit countries, broader use of biometric systems and new tools meant to track entries, exits and overstays across the Schengen zone. The report came as the EU prepared a new legislative push in 2026 to digitize case management for deportations.
The Commission’s findings also showed how quickly the bloc has shifted from passport-stamp controls to data-driven screening. The Entry/Exit System, fully operational across 29 countries as of April 10, 2026, registered 66 million entries and exits in its first six months of phased operation and produced 32,000 entry refusals.
Fingerprint checks through the Schengen Information System jumped from 17,000 to 87,000 daily after digital integration, according to the report. The increase gave border authorities a much wider pool of biometric matches as they screened travelers and sought to identify fraud and overstays.
Hans Leijtens, executive director of Frontex, said on January 15, 2026: “The trend is moving in the right direction, but risks do not disappear. This drop shows that cooperation can deliver results. It is not an invitation to relax.”
Preliminary Frontex data for the first four months of 2026 pointed to a further 40% decline in irregular crossings. The West African route recorded a 78% drop, a sign of how sharply flows have shifted on one of the bloc’s busiest approaches.
Those numbers add weight to a strategy that links enforcement at the border with pressure beyond it. EU officials have credited what they describe as migration diplomacy with countries such as Mauritania and Senegal, where authorities adopted stricter preventive measures aimed at stopping departures and disrupting smuggling routes.
The Schengen report described digital infrastructure as central to that effort. Replacing manual passport stamps with facial and fingerprint registration allows authorities to log movements automatically and flag people who stay beyond the period allowed under Schengen rules.
That shift has also altered travel through some of Europe’s busiest airports. Major hubs including Paris-Orly and Madrid-Barajas have reported long queues and missed connections for non-EU nationals as the new system beds in, reflecting the strain of processing large passenger volumes through biometric checks.
The Commission is pressing ahead anyway. Later in 2026, the EU plans to roll out the European Travel Information and Authorisation System, known as ETIAS, which will require visa-exempt travelers, including U.S. citizens, to obtain digital authorization before entry.
In January, the bloc also adopted its first-ever Visa Strategy, linking visa policy more directly to third-country cooperation on migration and security. That move broadened the EU’s use of visa rules from a travel management tool into a form of external leverage in migration policy.
Together, the new systems point to a sharper tradeoff inside the Schengen area: faster processing for selected categories of travelers and workers, paired with much tighter surveillance of movement at the border. The report framed that as a response to security risks, overstays and identity fraud rather than a temporary tightening.
The EU’s approach has unfolded alongside hard-line border language in the United States, where officials have cast 2026 as a year of tougher enforcement. On April 9, 2026, DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said: “Eleven straight months of ZERO releases at the border. Under President Donald Trump’s leadership, we are delivering the most secure border in American history. The world knows America’s borders are closed to lawbreakers.”
That same day, CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott said: “America First policies, real consequences, and a unified federal effort, backed by personnel, infrastructure, and technology, are how we’ve delivered the most secure border in U.S. history. This isn’t temporary, it’s the new normal.”
The Commission’s report did not present the EU figures as part of a transatlantic policy bloc, but the rhetoric on both sides has moved in a similar direction. Officials increasingly describe digital screening, biometric checks and return enforcement as permanent features of border management rather than crisis measures.
Inside the Schengen zone, that matters because free movement within the area depends on confidence in the external border. The Commission has argued for years that internal openness and external control are linked, and the latest report used fresh data to show that border digitization now sits at the center of that model.
Schengen crossings remain uneven by route and season, and the Commission did not describe the 26% drop as proof that pressure has disappeared. Leijtens’ warning pointed in the same direction: lower numbers do not erase the risk of new surges, route changes or shifts in smuggling patterns.
Still, the figures mark a clear benchmark for a bloc that has struggled for years to turn promises of common border management into daily practice. With the Return Rate at 28%, biometric checks up to 87,000 daily and the Entry/Exit System already logging 66 million entries and exits, the EU has moved deeper into a system where Schengen crossings are counted, checked and acted on in real time.
