Police handled 117 cases involving illegal stays

The National Commissioner of Police’s Returns and Escort Division completed 271 work requests from January to September, including 117 involving people staying in Iceland illegally, mbl.is reported. Those cases made up about 43% of the total.

Asylum cases accounted for 55 completed requests, or about 20%. They had been the division’s largest category last year, when they made up about half of its completed requests.

The second-largest category involved criminal records, prisoner transfers and extraditions. The division completed 89 requests in this group, about 33% of the total. Forty involved escorting people who had served one-third of their sentence, nearly half of the requests in the category. The division also assisted with nine cases of refusal of entry at the border.

Of the 271 requests completed, 189 involved an escort. For trips without an escort for the full journey, division officers accompany the person to the flight and ensure they leave the country. The division completed 389 requests in all of 2025.

At the end of September, 154 requests were still pending. Of those, 82 concerned refusal of entry or removal from the asylum system, 44 involved deportation of people staying illegally, and 21 related to prisoners, criminal records or extraditions. Most were being actively processed; some were waiting for travel documents or other required information.

The figures cover January 1 to September 30, 2026, and are preliminary. They may change during the final year-end review.