The European Union is set to impose new punitive measures on countries refusing to take back refugees, as it steps up its crackdown on immigration. The move comes as far-right parties continue to exploit public anger over illegal migrants to boost their support.

EU politicians and officials approved a proposal on Monday to restrict trade benefits for developing countries that refuse to take back their citizens, who have been refused asylum. A document seen by POLITICO states that low-tariff access to the EU's market will be reviewed in the context of "the readmission of that country's own nationals" who have been identified as "irregular migrants to the Union." Currently, only a small proportion of deportees are returned to their home countries, often because local authorities do not want to receive them back.

Data provided by the EU show that in the second quarter of 2025, 16 495 third-country nationals were ordered to leave.

However, of these only 28 355 persons were repatriated, a decrease of 0.8% compared with the previous quarter.

The EU document states: "In case of serious and systematic shortcomings related to the international obligation to readmit a beneficiary country's own nationals, the preferential arrangements ... may be withdrawn temporarily, in respect of all or of certain products originating in that beneficiary country, where the Commission considers that an insufficient level of cooperation on readmission persists."

The readmission clause will be applied with more or less stringent conditions depending on a country's development level, the document also says.

The measures are part of an ongoing update to the terms and conditions of the so-called Generalised Scheme of Preferences. This is a 50-year-old programme that offers tariff concessions to poorer countries in a bid to help them develop their economies.

Attempts to link trade concessions to immigration policy have previously proved contentious, provoking fierce debate.

But electoral success for Europe's far-right parties appears to have forced a major rethink.

Parties like Alternative for Germany are riding high in the polls, as they double down on their anti-immigrant rhetoric.

Alice Weidel talked of "large-scale repatriations" at a political conference prior to February's general elections, when the AfD became the second largest party in parliament.

"And I have to be honest with you: if it's going to be called remigration, then that's what it's going to be: remigration," she said at the time.