Number of persons found to be illegally present in EU Member States (2014)

Persons found to be illegally present on EU territory are third-country nationals who have been detected by Member States’ authorities and have been determined not to fulfil the conditions for entry, stay or residence in that Member State. These persons could have entered the EU avoiding immigration control or with false documents, or they may have entered legitimately but have stayed there on an illegal basis (for example by staying longer than the authorised period). As the number refers only to ‘detected’ irregular immigrants, it does not give the overall number of irregular immigrants in the Member States which is estimated to be much higher.