EU leaders are set to discuss plans for migrant “return centres” as the bloc changes its stance on asylum deportation camps.
Ahead of this week’s European Council summit, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called for “innovative ways to counter illegal migration.”
In a letter to the bloc’s leaders ahead of their meeting in Brussels, von der Leyen said they should consider developing “return centers outside the EU.”
These would likely house rejected asylum seekers sent from the EU when they receive deportation orders.
He added that the EU could “draw lessons” from Italy’s new asylum pact with Albania.
This will allow migrants rescued at sea by Italian ships to be transferred to Albania to have their asylum claims processed.
Ms von der Leyen’s call for EU leaders to consider approving “return centres” represents a radical shift by Brussels bosses on how to tackle illegal migration.
EU Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson previously criticized Britain’s plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda to have their claims processed.
“Sending asylum seekers more than 6,000 kilometers away and outsourcing asylum processes is not a humane and dignified immigration policy,” he stated in 2022.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer scrapped the Rwanda plan immediately after Labor won July’s general election.
But he has since expressed “great interest” in Italy’s deal with Albania, according to Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
Ahead of this week’s European Council summit, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called for “innovative ways to counter illegal migration.”
Migrants on the Italian navy ship Libra that arrived in Albania as part of an agreement with Italy to process thousands of asylum seekers trapped near Italian waters.
von der Leyen’s predecessor, Jean-Claude Juncker, expressed his opposition to “externally located return centres” outside the EU in 2018.
But, in her letter to EU leaders, von der Leyen warned that the bloc’s migration policy “can only be sustainable if those who do not have the right to remain in the EU are effectively returned.”
“We have already committed to reviewing, next year, the concept of designated safe third countries,” he said.
‘We should also continue to explore possible ways forward regarding the idea of developing return centers outside the EU, especially in view of a new legislative proposal on returns.
“With the start of operations of the Italy-Albania protocol, we will also be able to learn from this experience in practice.”