Return hubs rallied mass support in the EU Parliament, and are now being pushed ahead by most European leaders at the council summit – though not everyone is onboard
Nikolaj Nielsen
The leaders of 19 EU states have backed plans to offshore asylum by setting up so-called return hubs abroad for people whose applications for international protection have been rejected.
“We will personally lead the way to make sure our visions are brought to life,” they said, in an open letter published on Friday (19 June) against the backdrop of an EU summit in Brussels.
The letter was signed by Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, and Sweden.
Denmark has taken much of the credit, along with Italy. In a separate statement, Denmark’s left-leaning prime minister Mette Frederiksen said her country had been at the forefront of such initiatives.
“We have stood very much alone. But now there are many of us,” she said. Their hope is to have such hubs up and running before the year’s end, following a similar model to Italy’s deal with Albania whose five year budget is worth €670m.
Fellow signee Czech prime minister Andrej Babiš also welcomed discussions on the topic.
“They were welcoming all those migrants and now when we see what consequences it has on social policies and criminality, they have changed their opinion,” he said of other EU states.
Summit talks were expected to briefly touch on migration, until an exchange between Italy’s Giorgia Meloni and Spanish premier Pedro Sánchez triggered a greater discussion on returns and European solidarity, a diplomat told EUobserver.
“We consider that this will not bring any solution” said the Spanish PM after the summit.
French president Emmanuel Macron chimed in at the summit’s closing, telling the press: “These centres do not work,” and that they don’t respect “the fundamental principles on which Europe is built.”
Surprisingly, Germany’s Friedrich Merz was not among the 19 chief of states to sign the letter, despite his government highlighting the importance of prompt Syrian returns.
The surge in interest in return regulations comes on the back of a new EU deportation law, which passed earlier this week amid “send them back” chants made by far-right European law makers.
The bill was voted in by a significant majority of 418 MEPs to 218.
