EU countries push to set up deportation hubs by year-end

 

EU countries push to set up deportation hubs by year-end

 

“The era of deportations has begun,” lawmaker Charlie Weimers said after the European Parliament backed stricter migration rules.

 

March 26, 2026 7:01 pm CET

By Hanne Cokelaere and Nette Nöstlinger

https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-countries-push-set-up-deportation-hubs-by-year-end/

 

BRUSSELS — EU countries are moving ahead with plans to set up deportation centers outside the bloc after the European Parliament backed tougher migration rules.

 

Germany and the Netherlands want to have plans in place by the end of 2026 for so-called return hubs — facilities in third countries where rejected asylum seekers would be sent before deportation. Austria, Denmark and Greece are also involved in those talks.

 

“We are now consistently pursuing this path and aim to have reached agreements with third countries by the end of this year in order to take the next step: the establishment of these return hubs,” Germany’s Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said while meeting Dutch Migration Minister Bart van den Brink on Thursday.

 

“This is a complicated, difficult task, but it is a feasible one because we now have the necessary legal framework in place,” he said, saying the framework approved by the Parliament had put the initiative “on solid legal ground.”

 

EU lawmakers on Thursday agreed to start negotiations on new migration measures aimed at speeding up returns and penalizing rejected asylum seekers who refuse to leave.

 

“There is a new consensus in Europe,” said Charlie Weimers, the Swedish negotiator for the right-wing European Conservatives and Reformists group. “The era of deportations has begun.”

 

Human rights groups warn the plans could expose people to abuse. Return hubs are “essentially legal black holes,” the International Rescue Committee, a humanitarian NGO, said ahead of the vote.

 

The concept builds on efforts already underway in some EU countries. Denmark passed a law in 2021 allowing it to transfer asylum seekers to third countries for processing, while Italy struck a deal to set up processing and deportation centers in Albania — though legal challenges have slowed those plans.

 

A breakdown of Thursday’s vote shows the text secured backing from a majority of MEPs in most EU countries, reinforcing expectations that negotiations with the Council — launched hours after the vote — could move quickly.

 

“The citizens of the EU expect us to deliver on our pledge for a functional return system,” Cyprus’ Deputy Migration Minister Nicholas Ioannides said after the first negotiating meeting, adding he aims for a deal by the end of June. The system must ensure those without a legal right to stay in the EU are “effectively returned,” and that decisions are enforced across the bloc.

 

Lawmakers split largely along political lines. Left-wing groups opposed the rules, while most lawmakers in the liberal Renew group either voted against or abstained. The center-right European People’s Party (EPP), the ECR and the far-right Patriots and Europe of Sovereign Nations groups backed the text.

 

The EPP struck a deal with right-wing groups earlier this month after talks with centrist allies collapsed, securing the Parliament’s position.

 

Their text strengthens detention and deportation provisions, including limiting the ability of appeals to halt removals. The EPP’s cooperation with right-wing groups — some of it coordinated via a WhatsApp chat — has fueled criticism that it is shifting away from its traditional centrist alliances.

 

“History will remember that the so-called moderate right-wing group sounded the death knell of what remained of the cordon sanitaire,” said Greens negotiator Mélissa Camara, referring to the informal arrangement to sideline the far right.

 

Zoya Sheftalovich contributed reporting.