European Union lawmakers and governments have agreed new rules allowing countries to send migrants ordered to leave the bloc to holding centres outside its borders.
The deal is part of a broader tightening of EU migration policy amid pressure from right-wing parties, even as irregular arrivals fell 26 per cent last year to their lowest level since 2021.
The legislation, which still requires formal approval by EU governments and the European Parliament, is expected to enter into force swiftly and is the first update to the bloc's migration rules since 2008, said Dutch MEP Malik Azmani from the centrist Renew group.
EU Commissioner
Mr Azmani, who was the rapporteur of the legislative text, said it was “deeply concerning” that only 28 per cent of rejected asylum seekers returned to their country of origin. “It undermines public confidence in our common migration policies,” he said.
“We need to have instruments to be more forcible on returns, and there you have alternatives to detention, detention also as an instrument, but you can also have return hubs in specific cases,” he said.
Analyst concerns
The legislation was proposed by the European Commission last year. The commission says it would streamline procedures and give governments more tools to deport people while respecting fundamental rights.
Rights groups dispute that assessment. The new rules, which include setting up centres in third countries, known as return hubs, cannot be implemented in a manner that respects human rights, Olivia Sundberg, Amnesty advocate on migration and asylum, told The National. “They really significantly ramp up coercive measures for deportations,” she said.
Earlier this year, 16 UN special rapporteurs wrote to the Commission to express concern that the new EU migration rules could violate human rights.
But the agreement struck on Monday night included controversial points. These include the possible detention of unaccompanied minors and financial sanctions or extended entry bans on those deemed not to be co-operating sufficiently with authorities. Authorities would also be allowed to seize belongings, collect biometric data and search homes.
“We're talking about criminal sanctions, for perhaps simply the fact that people don't have a fixed address that they can give,” Ms Sundberg said. “Those things are really quite disproportionate and arbitrary and could lead to really inhumane treatment.”
The closest comparison to the proposed return hubs, which have not yet been formally designated, is Australia's offshore detention scheme in Papua New Guinea and Nauru island. The UN last year found Australia guilty of arbitrary detention and torture.
Mr Azmani said he did not expect all EU countries to implement return hubs, but they might act as an “incentive” for migrants to be more co-operative on returning to their home countries.
He said EU states would decide the location of the hubs, but they were likely to be in Africa or Eastern Europe. He added that it was “wise” that the EU was working towards externalising migration processing.
EU countries say they struggle to ensure that rejected asylum seekers and visa overstayers leave their territories. European Commissioner Magnus Brunner has previously said: “With the new rules, we have more control over who can come to the EU, who can stay, and who needs to leave.”
Human rights activists and non-governmental organisations working with asylum seekers in the bloc say some of the practices are already taking place and have increased in recent months. They point to a rise in deportations of recognised refugees from Germany and other states to Greece and other EU border countries.
There, they say, authorities sometimes carry out night-time raids of homes to detain people and transfer them to detention centres or airports for deportation without allowing them to gather their belongings.
The Netherlands is already working with Denmark, Germany, Greece and Austria to set up joint return and transit hubs, while bilateral talks with Uganda on a similar arrangement have been put on hold.
The Dutch government says it wants concrete steps by the end of the year, as it faces what Prime Minister Rob Jetten has called an “asylum crisis”.
Dutch reception centres are overcrowded – including the main registration hub Ter Apel, which has begun admitting only the most vulnerable. Anti-migration protests have taken place in areas hosting emergency shelters amid capacity shortages and a slow flow out of asylum seekers.
