EU leaders are set to discuss plans for migrant ‘returns hubs’ as the bloc shifts its stance on asylum deportation camps.
Ahead of this week’s European Council summit, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen called for ‘innovative ways to counter illegal migration’.
In a letter to the bloc’s leaders ahead of their gathering in Brussels, Ms von der Leyen said they should consider the development of ‘return hubs outside the EU’.
These would likely house failed asylum seekers sent from the EU when they are served with deportation orders.
She added the EU would be able to ‘draw lessons’ from Italy’s new asylum pact with Albania.
This will see migrants rescued at sea by Italian vessels transferred to Albania to have their asylum claims processed.
Ms von der Leyen’s call for EU leaders to consider the approval of ‘returns hubs’ represents an about-turn from Brussels bosses on how to tackle illegal migration.
Ylva Johansson, the EU’s commissioner for home affairs, previously blasted Britain’s plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda to have their claims processed.
‘Sending asylum seekers more than 6,000 km away and outsourcing asylum processes is not a humane and dignified migration policy,’ she said in 2022.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer junked the Rwanda plan immediately after Labour won July’s general election.
But he has since expressed ‘great interest’ in Italy’s deal with Albania, according to Italian PM Giorgia Meloni.
Ahead of this week’s European Council summit, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen called for ‘innovative ways to counter illegal migration’
Migrants stand on the Italian navy ship Libra that arrived in Albania as part of a deal with Italy to process thousands of asylum seekers caught near Italian waters
Ms von der Leyen’s predecessor, Jean-Claude Juncker, voiced his opposition to ‘externally located return centres’ outside the EU in 2018.
But, in her letter to EU leaders, Ms von der Leyen warned that the bloc’s migration policy ‘can only be sustainable if those who do not have the right to stay in the EU are effectively returned’.
‘We are already committed to review, by next year, the concept of designated safe third countries,’ she said.
‘We should also continue to explore possible ways forward as regards the idea of developing return hubs outside the EU, especially in view of a new legislative proposal on return.
‘With the start ofoperations ofthe Italy-Albania protocol, we will also be able to draw lessons from this experience in practice.’
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
