THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION has proposed a revision to the rules governing the deportation of failed asylum seekers that would see people sent to “return hubs” in countries outside the European Union. 

The move, which aligns with the bloc’s Pact on Migration and Asylum that was agreed last year, has been condemned by human rights organisations, with Amnesty International calling it a “new low” for the EU and “an alarming departure from international law”.

The proposal, called the Common European System for Returns, aims to make a uniform system for the deportation of irregular immigrants across the EU.

“We are creating the scope for member states to explore new solutions for return,” Magnus Brunner, the EU commissioner for migration, told a press conference in Strasbourg.

The Commission said that return rates stand at 20%, which President Ursula von der Leyen said was “far too low”.  

The proposal includes what the Commission calls “innovative solutions”, including “the legal possibility to return individuals who are illegally staying in the EU and have received a final return decision, to a third country based on an agreement or arrangement concluded bilaterally or at EU level”. 

That part of the proposal has similarities to arrangements made by Italy with Albania, Australia with Pacific nations and the UK with Rwanda, although those were focussed on processing applications rather than deportations. 

Outsourcing immigration processes to third countries has long been criticised by human rights organisations for its inefficiency, huge cost and the prevalence of inhumane conditions in detention centres where similar policies have already been implemented.

Amnesty said that the proposals would have “severe diplomatic, legal and financial implications for Europe”, and would likely result in “a grave pattern of human rights violations, including refoulement and arbitrary detention”. 

“The European Commission has caved to the unworkable, expensive and inhumane demands of a few shrill anti-human rights and anti-migration governments,” said Eve Geddie of Amnesty International. 

“The Commission itself discarded the concept of ‘return hubs’ in 2018. It is well aware that these proposals will lead to human rights violations, waste millions of euros and alienate allies – at a time when the EU needs friends,” she said. 

“Despite this, today’s proposal lays the ground for states to send people to countries to which they have no connection, to languish in detention centres, with little credible guarantees that their rights will be upheld. Frankly, this is a new low for Europe.”

The Commission’s proposal, which will now pass to the European Parliament for approval, also contains an extension of the amount of time people can be kept in detention. 

“The new rules set out clear conditions for detention if there is a risk of absconding as well as alternatives to detention. Detention may go up to 24 months, compared to 18 months currently,” the proposal says.  

Eve Geddie of Amnesty said: “This punitive, detention- and enforcement-based approach will only increase the costs in national budgets and most crucially, the suffering of people whose rights are restricted and violated.”   

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