BRUSSELS, March 12 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The EU is expected to open the way for member states to set up migrant return centres outside the bloc — a highly contentious idea — following pressure from governments to facilitate deportations.
The European Commission is to unveil a planned reform of the EU’s return system, which critics say is inadequate in its present form. Data shows that less than 20 percent of irregular migrants who are ordered to leave Europe currently do so.
“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.
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.
Led by immigration hawks including 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.
Most controversial among them is the creation of “return hubs” outside the European Union where failed asylum seekers could be sent pending transfer back 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.
Brussels is currently busy dealing with US tariff threats, an aggressive Russia and the prospect of a collapse in transatlantic relations.
Britain recently abandoned a similar scheme to deport illegal migrants to Rwanda, and Italian-run facilities to process migrants in Albania, coming with an estimated cost of 160 million euros a year, are bogged down in the courts.
Irregular border crossings detected into the European Union were down 38 percent to 239,000 last year after an almost 10-year peak in 2023, according to EU border agency Frontex. — NNN-AGENCIES
