The EU on Tuesday opened the way for member states to set up migrant return centres outside the bloc, in a highly contentious move following pressure from governments to facilitate deportations.
With data showing less than 20 percent of people ordered to leave the EU currently do so, the European Commission unveiled a planned reform of the bloc's return system, including making it easier to lock up undocumented migrants.
"We are creating the scope for member states to explore new solutions for return," Magnus Brunner, the EU commissioner for migration, told a press conference in Strasbourg on Tuesday afternoon.
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.
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Led by 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.
'Innovative' measures
Most controversial is the creation of "return hubs" outside the European Union, where failed asylum seekers could be sent pending transfer 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.
The proposed regulation would allow EU countries to strike deals with other nations to set up such centres.
Agreements will be possible only with countries where human rights "are respected", and minors and families with children will be exempt, according to the text.
"We are creating the legal frame, we're not creating the content," Brunner said of the hubs.
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 despite the commission's proposal.
The text also envisages an expansion of the conditions under which undocumented migrants can be detained – previously a last resort.
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Authorities will be authorised to hold those considered at risk of absconding or who pose a security risk for up to 24 months, as well as those who do not cooperate with return procedures.
Detention would also be an option used while measures were taken "to determine or verify" someone's identity or nationality, according to the plan, which needs backing from parliament and member states to become law.
Such measures were "essential" to ensure that the system was not abused and migrants ordered to leave did not move from one member state to another, Brunner said.
"This will give people back the feeling that we have control over what happens in Europe," he added.
"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 at the weekend.
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'Lives in limbo'
The UK recently abandoned a similar scheme to deport illegal migrants to Rwanda. Meanwhile, Italian-run facilities to process migrants in Albania – at an estimated cost of €160 million ($175 million) a year – are currently 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.
Amnesty International points out that the Commission itself discarded the concept of return hubs in 2018.
"It is well aware that these proposals will lead to human rights violations, waste millions of euros and alienate allies – at a time when the EU needs friends" the organisation said.
Eve Geddie, director of Amnesty International’s European Institutions Office called the proposals "a new low" for Europe.
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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 into the EU were down 38 percent to 239,000 last year after an almost 10-year peak in 2023, according to EU border agency Frontex.
(with AFP)
