EU votes to send rejected asylum seekers to holding centres outside the bloc
Germany and a group of European countries are moving ahead with plans to deport rejected asylum seekers to holding centres outside the EU.
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Berlin is working with the Netherlands, Denmark, Austria and Greece - with support from Finland and Italy - to set up so-called “return hubs” by the end of the year.
These facilities are expected to be located mainly in African countries willing to host asylum seekers who cannot be returned to their home nations.
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Meanwhile, in France, President Emmanuel Macron and his centre-right government have also signalled support for the plan, as the hard-right National Rally surge in the polls.
On Thursday, the European Parliament’s centre-right bloc joined forces with the hard right to pass the Return Regulation.
The legislation, drafted by the European Commission and backed in principle last year by national governments, is designed to make deportation procedures "faster and more effective".
If it receives final approval from governments and parliament, the law will allow EU member states to strike deals with host countries to house rejected asylum seekers.
It will also allow migrants to be held for up to two years and tracked using measures such as electronic tags. Deportation orders issued in one country will be enforced across the EU, closing loopholes that currently let migrants move within the bloc to avoid removal.
Speaking after the vote, Alexander Dobrindt, the German interior minister, said: "We aim to have reached agreements with third countries by the end of this year to take the next step - the establishment of these return hubs.”
François-Xavier Bellamy, leader of the French conservative Republicans group in the European parliament, said: “The decisive changes introduced by this regulation will make it possible to simply guarantee the straightforward principle that if you come to Europe illegally, rest assured that you will not stay here.”
Italy’s right-wing Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni described the European Parliament vote - passed 389 to 206 - as “a decisive moment” in Europe’s fight against illegal immigration.
Meloni has already launched an Italian programme processing migrants in Albania, but only around 80 people have been sent there so far, after legal challenges slowed its rollout.
The plan has drawn comparisons with the UK’s former scheme to deport undocumented migrants to Rwanda, which was scrapped by the Labour government in 2024 after the Tories spent £700 million on it.
The hardliners’ win reflects growing frustration across Europe over illegal migration and the failure of EU countries to deport around 80% of rejected asylum seekers.
Although arrivals fell last year, tensions remain high, fueled by the visible presence of undocumented migrants in city streets and reports of their involvement in crime.
Left-wing critics said they were appalled by the vote, seeing it as evidence of a rightward shift in the European Parliament following hard-right gains in the 2024 EU-wide elections.
They warned the decision signalled the end of the mainstream parties’ long-standing "cordon sanitaire" against populist nationalist groups, including Germany’s Alternative for Germany and France’s National Rally.
The legislation would allow countries to detain migrants indefinitely if they cannot be returned to their home nations.
Experts and campaigners have criticised the plan as a "Trump-inspired" effort to create a European version of the US’s heavy-handed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency, effectively outsourcing responsibility for migrants.
NGOs including Amnesty International have warned the legislation carries "grave risks of systematic human rights violations".
PICUM, which supports undocumented migrants, said the rules would send people "to deportation centres in countries they have never set foot in" and increase surveillance and discrimination.
The International Red Cross added that holding centres outside EU territory would put migrants’ rights beyond policymakers’ control.
If approved this year by the EU Council and parliament, the laws would set up a framework allowing governments to strike agreements with non-EU host countries.
Left-wing parties and human rights groups have vowed to challenge the plan in court, as they did over the UK’s Rwanda scheme and Italy’s Albania programme.
The German-led coalition pushing the “return hubs” has not confirmed which countries will host them, but diplomats are pointing mainly to Africa. Uganda, Mauritania, and Benin are among the nations said to have shown interest.