The Common European System for Returns aims to speed up deportation of asylum seekers who aren’t permitted to stay in the European Union. In an unexpected move, it also opens the possibility to build the controversial detention centres outside the bloc.
The revised regulation fills a gap within the Pact on Migration and Asylum to be implemented from July 2026 and aims to address the fact that only about 20% of yearly deportation orders are carried out, according to EU institutions.
Lists of safe countries of origin and safe third countries to which rejected asylum applicants may be sent should be defined. In some of those countries so-called “return hubs” may be built with financial support from interested EU states.
“The Commission has put forward several articles that establish the legal basis for member states to build these deportation centres outside of the European Union, but the Commission will not be involved in their managing,” says Jorge Liboreiro, who covers asylum and migration policy for Euronews.
Such outsourcing of migration has been supported by right-wing parties and was deemed unacceptable by the EU executive in 2018 when it first tried to revise the regulation for returning rejected asylum applicants.
“It is really a normalisation of a policy that used to be considered extreme,” says Jorge Liboreiro.
Greater representation of nationalist and conservative politicians in the European Council and the European Parliament in the last couple of years has brought the powerful groups including the centre-right European People Party (EPP) to accept the idea.
Javier Zarzalejos, president of the Justice and Home Affairs Committee in the European Parliament is one that sees value in the eventual bilateral agreements for the hubs.
“The European Union will impose certain provisions on these agreements, specifically to ensure respect for fundamental rights, in particular for those most vulnerable in the centres,” says the Spanish EPP lawmaker.
A Belgian Green colleague on the committee, Saskia Bricmont, is less convinced, however. “There will be no monitoring of fundamental rights. How will the EU check it in third countries when we see today, even without this official hubs, human rights violations all over the place?” she asks.
Obligations and penalties
The European Commission has stressed that the return hubs are not the central aspect of the legislative proposal, saying the emphasis is on measures to gain more cooperation from refused applicants to leave the bloc voluntarily.
The regulation states that the rejected asylum seeker must cooperate with the authorities, including providing ID and biometric information, as well as not absconding to another member state.
If the person does not cooperate, the consequences can include reduction or refusal of benefits and allowances, seizure of identity documents and longer entry bans.
It will probably take long months of negotiations to get an agreement between the co-legislators and the final regulation may be subject to many amendments.
“On the one hand, I understand people who migrate to other countries because they are escaping very difficult and delicate situations. On the other hand, we need more regulations, as especially in Italy, there is currently too much confusion,” says a Roman citizen quizzed by Euronews on the issue, flagging the trickiness of striking a balance.
EU member states signalled the intention to implement a paradigm shift in policy last October, in a letter signed by 12 countries.
“Italy, Denmark and the Netherlands have been leading the political discussions around outsourcing, bringing other countries in a sort of coalition. I think these three countries might also push to actually build the centres, now that regulation is on the table,” says Jorge Liboreiro.
National and European courts may raise questions about legality, as happened with an asylum processing centre built by Italy in Albania, the result of a bilateral agreement. The infrastructure has been paralysed by legal action, but Meloni’s government may now consider turning the centre into a “return hub”.
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Journalist: Isabel Marques da Silva
Content production: Pilar Montero López
Video production: Zacharia Vigneron
Graphism: Loredana Dumitru
Editorial coordination: Ana Lázaro Bosch and Jeremy Fleming-Jones
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