EU Talks Deportations as Five Nations Seek Migrant Centre in Africa
The new rules allow member states to send rejected asylum seekers to third countries, as only 25% of expulsion orders were carried out in 2025, officials said.
- On Thursday, European Union ministers gather in Luxembourg to advance plans for "return hubs" outside the bloc, with Rwanda emerging as a potential partner for rejected asylum seekers.
- A coalition of five nations—Denmark, Austria, Greece, Germany, and the Netherlands—is exploring these centers to manage migration amid rising anti-immigration sentiment across the bloc.
- The "group of five" will finance the project entirely on its own, with these "return hubs" serving as transit stations for individuals whose asylum applications were legally rejected.
- Critics, including Dutch lawmakers Anna Strolenberg and Tineke Strik, warn the centers could become "legal black holes" lacking oversight, while human rights groups fear detainees could face refoulement to unsafe home countries.
- Greece aims to open its first center by 2027, though past initiatives like the British "Rwanda Model" faced severe legal challenges and were ultimately halted by courts, casting doubt on viability.
115 Articles
115 Articles
Faster returns, stricter controls: The EU's plan to tighten migration
The EU is cracking down on migration two months after launching the Migration and Asylum Pact. Migrants with no right to stay must leave and may be transferred to “return hubs”. A new European Return Order will include key elements of return decisions. But is the EU prepared?
European Union is considering return hubs in third countries
The European Union (EU) is exploring new ways to speed up the “return” of irregular migrants and rejected asylum seekers, including “return hubs” in third countries where migrants could be held while deportation arrangements are finalized. Among the countries reportedly being considered are Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, raising concerns that Central Asian states could become migration hubs or “ghettos” (as Open Kyrgyzstan puts it) for deportees, in…
The EU Council has finally approved new regulations to complement the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum. Their aim is to increase the effectiveness of decisions ordering people to leave the EU. According to EU data, approximately two-thirds of people obliged to leave the EU do not actually do so. "The new regulations on returns will help member states implement return decisions effectively and quickly," emphasized Irish Minister for Justice, Home …
On 1 October 2026, the EU Home Affairs Ministers adopted the new Return Regulation, which establishes a uniform system for the return of third-country nationals residing illegally in the EU.The Regulation aims to make deportations of rejected asylum seekers and irregular migrants more efficient and comparable across Europe in the future.In addition, it enables Member States to take more stringent measures when people try to avoid repatriation.Mi…
The Council has decided on the new return regulation. Germany, Austria and other countries are already negotiating locations – experts doubt how the centres should exist legally.
With the adoption of the law on the establishment of centers for the expulsion of rejected asylum seekers to third countries, the European Union member states have created the legal basis. EU interior ministers approved the law during a meeting in Luxembourg. The planned centers for expulsion, also known as "Return Hubs", will be sent to people who have received an order to leave the EU but who cannot return to their countries of origin, for exa…
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