diff --git a/pkg/virt-handler/vm.go b/pkg/virt-handler/vm.go
index 339d2f78fc2d..4b1649106fdf 100644
--- a/pkg/virt-handler/vm.go
+++ b/pkg/virt-handler/vm.go
@@ -2718,6 +2718,8 @@ func (d *VirtualMachineController) vmUpdateHelperMigrationTarget(origVMI *v1.Vir
 		}
 		log.Log.Object(vmi).Infof("Signaled target pod for failed migration to clean up")
 		// nothing left to do here if the migration failed.
+		// Re-enqueue to trigger final cleanup
+		d.Queue.AddAfter(controller.VirtualMachineInstanceKey(vmi), time.Second)
 		return nil
 	} else if migrations.IsMigrating(vmi) {
 		// If the migration has already started,
diff --git a/tests/migration/migration.go b/tests/migration/migration.go
index 5528f5fa3130..827dc0020723 100644
--- a/tests/migration/migration.go
+++ b/tests/migration/migration.go
@@ -1921,6 +1921,13 @@ var _ = SIGMigrationDescribe("VM Live Migration", func() {
 			})
 
 			It("old finalized migrations should get garbage collected", func() {
+				kvConfig := getCurrentKvConfig(virtClient)
+				kvConfig.DeveloperConfiguration.LogVerbosity = &v1.LogVerbosity{
+					VirtController: 9,
+					VirtHandler:    9,
+					VirtLauncher:   9,
+				}
+				tests.UpdateKubeVirtConfigValueAndWait(kvConfig)
 				vmi := tests.NewRandomFedoraVMI()
 				vmi.Spec.Domain.Resources.Requests[k8sv1.ResourceMemory] = resource.MustParse("1Gi")
 
@@ -1959,6 +1966,7 @@ var _ = SIGMigrationDescribe("VM Live Migration", func() {
 				migrations, err := virtClient.VirtualMachineInstanceMigration(vmi.Namespace).List(context.Background(), metav1.ListOptions{})
 				Expect(err).ToNot(HaveOccurred())
 				Expect(migrations.Items).To(HaveLen(5))
+				Fail("Failing on purpose")
 			})
 
 			It("[test_id:6979]Target pod should exit after failed migration", func() {