Work on migrant hubs progressing ‘very well’: EU

Work to set up migrant return hubs outside the EU is progressing “very well,” Denmark said yesterday as the bloc’s home affairs ministers met in Luxembourg to discuss further ways to boost deportations.

Denmark — along with Austria, Greece, Germany and the Netherlands — has been exploring options to set up such migrant centers.

“When it comes to return hubs it’s progressing very well,” Danish Minister for Immigration and Integration Morten Bodskov said. “We are moving in the right direction.”

An EU flag flutters outside the European Commission headquarters in Brussels on April 9 last year.

Photo: Reuters

German Minister of the Interior Alexander Dobrindt said there were “preliminary” talks and that more work was needed to make sure any agreement would withstand possible lawsuits.

“These agreements are meant to be sustainable in the long term,” he said, adding that he was hopeful that a first deal could be sealed by the end of the year.

The Luxembourg talks come with anti-immigration parties riding high across the bloc, as evidenced by far-right gains in Germany this month.

EU ministers were set to give final approval to tougher new migration rules allowing for the creation of return hubs and granting authorities much broader detention powers. The meeting agenda included discussion on using “enhanced cooperation” with “priority” non-EU countries for returns of people with no right to stay in the bloc.

Proponents said return hubs — which would serve either as the final destination or as transfer centers for those expelled — could facilitate repatriations and act as a deterrent for would-be irregular migrants.

However, critics question their effectiveness, pointing to the hurdles faced by similar projects and likening them to “legal black holes” that could see migrants stranded in limbo with little oversight.

The UK abandoned a scheme to deport undocumented migrants to Rwanda, while Italian-run facilities to process migrants in Albania have faced legal challenges and a slow uptake.

Greek Minister for Migration and Asylum Thanos Plevris said his country was aiming to open a center next year in an African country “that we have already agreed on,” but could not yet be named.

Two European lawmakers from the Greens group said officials in Rwanda had told them they were negotiating with the five EU countries.

Dutch lawmakers Anna Strolenberg and Tineke Strik oppose return hubs over human rights and other concerns.

“Most likely the first country that a deal will be struck with is Rwanda,” Strolenberg said.