a letter has been sent to EU leaders calling for changes to the migrant deportation process. Ahead of the European Council meeting on October 10-11, the Netherlands and Austria, supported by 15 other Schengen countries, submitted an informal letter urging the European Commission to reform the EU’s outdated migrant return policies. This push is part of a broader effort to streamline the deportation process for individuals without legal status in the EU.
The countries emphasized the need to modernize the current legal framework, arguing that it no longer meets the challenges posed by migration today. They are advocating for a new, efficient system that would clarify the obligations of individuals facing deportation and impose penalties for non-cooperation with authorities. The reform aims to accelerate deportations, particularly as political pressure grows across Europe to address migration more decisively
Plans for processing asylum claims offshore gain traction among politicians unnerved by rise of far right. European leaders have sparred over the controversial idea of processing asylum seekers offshore at a summit dominated by plans to toughen up EU migration policy.
Plans for the offshore processing of asylum claims or vaguely defined “return hubs” in non-EU countries have gained traction in recent weeks, after large gains for the far right in European elections in June unnerved mainstream leaders across the continent.
In a move that insiders say would have been unthinkable a few years ago, the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, has said the EU should explore the idea of creating “return hubs” outside its borders to help in deporting unwanted migrants.
However, as leaders arrived in Brussels on Thursday, details were scant and officials had not made clear which countries might host the centres.
The EU, von der Leyen said, should learn from the Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni’s, deal with Albania, an EU candidate country that is hosting two asylum centres to process the claims of men intercepted in international waters trying to reach Italy.
Meloni said that there were “many countries looking at the Albania model”, and praised von der Leyen. “There is a desire to work on pragmatic solutions,” she said.
Amid turmoil in the Middle East, the Italian prime minister is also urging fellow EU leaders to review their policy on Syria so refugees from that country can “return home voluntarily, safely and sustainably”.
The proposal, yet to be fully fleshed out in public, underscores how Europe has moved on since 2015. Then, the EU’s most powerful leader, Angela Merkel, declared “we can manage it” as 1.3 million people sought refugee, mainly from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq.
Before this summit, 11 national leaders took part in a meeting organised by Italy, Denmark and the Netherlands to discuss “innovative solutions”, a mantra for leaders seeking alternatives to the status quo. The leaders of Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, Greece, Cyprus, Malta and von der Leyen attended the meeting.
The Danish prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, said that until now, raising such issues had been “a bit like shouting in an empty sports hall”. Now there were “many countries that work together on this”, said Frederiksen, a Social Democrat with a hard line on immigration.
“A great number of Europeans are tired of us helping people from outside who commit crimes. Some are radicalised,” she said. “It can’t go on like this. Therefore, there is a limit as to how many people we can help.”
The Dutch prime minister, Dick Schoof, who leads a government dominated by the party of the far-right leader Geert Wilders, said: “We see that there is a different mood in Europe.”
His government said on Wednesday it was considering a plan to send rejected African asylum seekers to Uganda. It was not immediately clear whether such a plan would be legal, feasible, or acceptable to Kampala.
The commission has also promised legal proposals to increase deportations of people denied asylum and ordered to return to their country of origin – currently only about one in five people.
“Returns are the missing link in our migration policy,” the Greek prime minister, Kyriákos Mitsotákis, said. “I am happy about the fact that we recognise that we need to think outside of the box to address this pressing concern.”
But Mitsotákis also voiced scepticism about whether the Italy-Albania model could be replicated across the EU. Speaking to the Financial Times, he called for efforts to increase legal migration, as well as clamp down on irregular arrivals. “Who is going to pick our olives?” he said, stressing the need for skilled and unskilled labour.
