The UK recorded a steady increase in enforced returns after the number of people returned fell sharply during the COVID-19 pandemic, with nationals of five countries accounting for a significant share of returns in recent years.
According to the UK Home Office’s immigration statistics, there were 9,914 enforced returns in the year ending December 2025, representing a 21% increase from the 8,169 recorded in the previous year.
The Home Office’s data tracks the five most common nationalities for enforced returns from the year ending December 2021 to the year ending December 2025.
Here are the four countries whose nationals featured most prominently in the latest figures.
1. Albania
Albanian nationals have consistently been the most common nationality for enforced returns over the last five years, according to the Home Office.
In the year ending December 2025, 2,440 Albanian nationals were subject to enforced returns, accounting for about 25% of all 9,914 enforced returns recorded during the period.
However, the figure was 7% lower than the previous year.
The Home Office said enforced returns of Albanian nationals increased following the signing of the UK-Albania Joint Communique in December 2022, which came after substantial numbers of Albanian nationals arrived in the UK by small boats in 2022.
Foreign national offenders also accounted for more than half of Albanian enforced returns in the latest year.
2. Romania
Romanian nationals recorded the second-highest number of enforced returns among the nationalities highlighted by the Home Office.
There were 1,818 enforced returns of Romanian nationals in the year ending December 2025.
This represented a 20% increase compared with the previous year.
The Home Office said foreign national offenders accounted for more than half of Romanian enforced returns during the latest 12-month period.
Romania’s position in the figures comes amid wider changes to the UK’s immigration system following the end of EU free movement.
3. Brazil
Brazilian nationals recorded 939 enforced returns from the UK in the year ending December 2025.
The figure was 61% higher than the previous year, making Brazil one of the nationalities with the largest increases among the prominent nationalities.
Unlike the figures for Albania and Romania, foreign national offenders accounted for a much smaller proportion of Brazilian enforced returns.
Brazilian nationals have also featured prominently in the UK’s wider return figures. The Home Office recorded 4,759 voluntary returns of Brazilian nationals in the year ending December 2025.
4. India
The number of Indian nationals subject to enforced returns almost doubled to 781 in the year ending December 2025.
India was therefore among the nationalities that recorded a particularly sharp increase in enforced returns during the period.
The Home Office said, as with Brazil, foreign national offenders accounted for a much smaller proportion of Indian enforced returns than they did for Albanian and Romanian nationals.
Indian nationals also recorded a much larger number of voluntary returns, with 8,652 Indians voluntarily returning from the UK during the same 12-month period.
Vanguard News
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