EU to pave way for return hubs in migration reform

The EU is expected Tuesday to open the way for member states to set up migrant return centres outside the bloc — a highly contentious idea — following pressure from governments to facilitate deportations.

The European Commission is to unveil a planned reform of the EU’s return system, which critics say is inadequate in its present form. Data shows that less than 20 percent of irregular migrants who are ordered to leave Europe currently do so.

“We want to put in place a truly European system for returns, preventing absconding, and facilitating the return of third-country nationals with no right to stay,” commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said Sunday.

A souring of public opinion on migration has fuelled hard-right electoral gains in several EU countries, upping pressure on governments to harden their stance.

Led by immigration hawks including Sweden, Italy, Denmark and the Netherlands, EU leaders called in October for urgent new legislation to increase and speed up returns and for the commission to assess “innovative” ways to counter irregular migration.

Most controversial among them is the creation of “return hubs” outside the European Union where failed asylum seekers could be sent pending transfer back home.

This is not possible at present as under EU rules migrants can be transferred only to their country of origin or a country they transited from, unless they agree otherwise.

Magnus Brunner, the commissioner for migration, is expected to propose to the European Parliament in Strasbourg legal changes allowing EU countries to strike deals with other nations to set up such centres, according to people familiar with the matter.

An expansion of the conditions under which irregular migrants can be detained is also likely to be featured in the proposal, which will need backing from parliament and member states to become law.

– ‘Out of the way’ –

Fraught with legal and ethical concerns, some experts say return hubs are an expensive and impractical idea that is unlikely to see large-scale uptake any time soon in spite of the commission’s proposal.

For Jacob Kirkegaard of Bruegel, a think tank, the amendments reflect a “path of least resistance” chosen by von der Leyen when dealing with divisive issues that are no longer a priority given the fraught international environment.

Brussels is currently busy dealing with US tariff threats, an aggressive Russia and the prospect of a collapse in transatlantic relations.

“This is simply about political bandwidth,” Kirkegaard said. “She’s going to get out of the way” and let member states do what they want, he said of von der Leyen.

The changes are likely to upset rights groups, some of which have already voiced concerns.

“This new proposal will be harmful and confirms the EU’s obsession with deportations,” said Silvia Carta of the Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants (PICUM).

“We can likely expect more people being locked up in immigration detention centres across Europe, families separated, and people sent to countries they don’t even know,” she said.

Britain recently abandoned a similar scheme to deport illegal migrants to Rwanda, and Italian-run facilities to process migrants in Albania, coming with an estimated cost of 160 million euros ($175 million) a year, are bogged down in the courts.

Return hubs will conceivably face a similar slew of legal challenges if they are set up, said Olivia Sundberg Diez of Amnesty International.

“We can expect drawn-out litigation, probably costly centres sitting empty and lives in limbo in the meantime,” she said.

Yet proponents say there are few viable alternatives.

“If we are not going to do the return hubs, what will we do instead is my question? We have tried other systems for many years, it doesn’t work,” Johan Forssell, Sweden’s migration minister, told AFP.

Irregular border crossings detected into the European Union were down 38 percent to 239,000 last year after an almost 10-year peak in 2023, according to EU border agency Frontex. (BSS/AFP)