Stockholm: On Thursday, European Union migration ministers will meet to discuss visa restrictions and better coordination within the bloc in order to return more people with no right to asylum in Europe to their home countries, including Iraq.

Only Gambia has been formally punished three years after the EU's 27-nation agreement to restrict visas for countries deemed unwilling to cooperate in returning their people.

Similar steps were proposed by the EU's executive European Commission in relation to Iraq, Senegal, and Bangladesh, though two EU officials said cooperation with Dhaka on returning people has since improved.

Nonetheless, according to the most recent Eurostat data, the EU's overall rate of effective returns was 21% in 2021. "That is a level that member states consider unacceptable," one EU official said.

"That is a level that member states consider unacceptable," one EU official said.

Immigration is a highly sensitive political topic in the EU, with member countries preferring to discuss increasing returns and reducing irregular immigration in the first place rather than renewing their bitter feuds over how to divide the burden of caring for those who make it to Europe and win the right to stay.

"Establishing an effective and common EU return system is a central pillar of well-functioning and credible immigration and asylum systems," the Commission wrote in a discussion paper for ministers.

According to United Nations data, approximately 160,000 people crossed the Mediterranean in 2022, the main route to Europe for people fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East, Africa, and Southeast Asia. In addition, nearly 8 million Ukrainian refugees have been registered across Europe.

The ministers will meet two weeks before the 27 EU national leaders meet in Brussels to discuss migration, and they are expected to call for more people to be deported.

"Swift action is required to ensure effective returns from the European Union to countries of origin, using all relevant EU policies as leverage," according to a draft of their joint statement.

According to the Commission, there are insufficient resources and coordination between different parts of government within the EU to ensure that each person with no right to stay is effectively returned or deported.

"Inadequate cooperation of origin countries is an additional challenge," it added, naming issues such as recognizing and issuing identity and travel documents.

However, pressure from migration chiefs to impose visa restrictions on some third countries has previously clashed with the EU's own foreign and development ministers, or failed due to the conflicting agendas of various EU countries.

As a result, there has not been a sufficient majority among EU countries to punish another country other than Gambia, where people can no longer obtain multiple entry visas to the bloc and face a longer wait.

While EU countries such as Austria and Hungary protest loudly against mostly Muslim irregular immigration from the Middle East and North Africa, Germany is among those seeking to open their labor markets to much-needed workers from outside the EU.