BRUSSELS (AFP) – The European Union (EU) is expected to open the way for member states to set up migrant return centres outside the bloc 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 per cent 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,” said Commission Chief Ursula von der Leyen.
The commissioner for migration Magnus Brunner is expected to propose to the European Parliament in Strasbourg legal changes allowing EU countries to strike deals with other nations to set up such centres, according to people familiar with the matter.
An expansion of the conditions under which irregular migrants can be detained is also likely to be featured in the proposal, which will need backing from Parliament and member states to become law.
Fraught with legal and ethical concerns, some experts say return hubs are an expensive and impractical idea that is unlikely to see large-scale uptake any time soon in spite of the commission’s proposal.
Brussels is currently busy dealing with US tariff threats 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 USD175 million a year, are bogged down in the courts.
Return hubs will conceivably face a similar slew of legal challenges if they are set up, said analyst of Amnesty International Olivia Sundberg Diez.
“We can expect drawn-out litigation, probably costly centres sitting empty and lives in limbo in the meantime,” she said. “If we are not going to do the return hubs, what will we do instead is my question? We have tried other systems for many years, it doesn’t work,” Sweden’s Migration Minister Johan Forssell told AFP.
