{"id":86280,"date":"2025-09-26T07:04:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T07:04:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/86280\/"},"modified":"2025-09-26T07:04:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T07:04:07","slug":"ireland-open-to-using-deportation-hubs-outside-eu-borders-jim-ocallaghan-says-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/86280\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland open to using deportation hubs outside EU borders, Jim O\u2019Callaghan says \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Government would be open to sending unsuccessful asylum seekers to sites outside the EU<\/a>\u2019s borders while deportation to their home countries is arranged, Minister for Justice Jim O\u2019Callaghan<\/a> has said. <\/p>\n

The controversial proposal to transfer failed applicants to so-called deportation hubs was not something Ireland should \u201crule out at this stage\u201d, the Fianna F\u00e1il<\/a> TD said. <\/p>\n

A large number of national governments are pushing for firmer EU rules around deportations as part of a recent shift to the right on migration policy. <\/p>\n

Proposals being debated in Brussels include new union-wide deportation orders, which any of the bloc\u2019s 27 states could enforce, as well as green-lighting the idea of deportation or \u201creturn\u201d hubs. <\/p>\n

Amnesty International and other civil society groups have criticised plans to send unsuccessful applicants to sites outside EU borders while the often complicated process of arranging deportations to their home countries in the Middle East<\/a>, Africa or elsewhere takes place. <\/p>\n

In an interview on Thursday, Mr O\u2019Callaghan said Ireland would only consider such a scheme if it looked like it would be effective and not end up as a waste of money. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf it\u2019s effective and if it gives rise to consistency across the European Union, it\u2019s something that I and the Government would consider,\u201d he said. \u201cIn practice, a lot of money could be spent on trying to give effect to something that isn\u2019t successful, but if it appears that it can succeed, it\u2019s something that Ireland won\u2019t rule out at this stage.\u201d <\/p>\n

He noted that attempts to outsource aspects of the asylum process had not \u201creally been that successful in other countries when it has been tried\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would need to see what proposals are put in place by the union in respect of return hubs and how they would operate,\u201d said Mr O\u2019Callaghan. <\/p>\n

Under the plans being debated in Brussels, EU states would be allowed to strike agreements with other countries, such as Uganda or Rwanda<\/a>, to host deportation hubs. <\/p>\n

Any move to establish deportation processing facilities outside the EU would need \u201cabsolute guarantees\u201d that the human rights of unsuccessful asylum applicants would be protected, Mr O\u2019Callaghan said. <\/p>\n

The Minister said any scheme would need to comply with international law, which prohibits anyone being deported to a country where they could be at risk of harm or persecution. <\/p>\n

Government figures and officials have previously said they would need to study the details of how such deportation hubs or return agreements would work. <\/p>\n

The proposal is at an early stage in the EU policymaking process. However, member states such as Italy, Denmark and the Netherlands are pushing for a quick agreement that would open the door to deals being struck to set up deportation hubs in Africa, or potentially in the western Balkans. <\/p>\n

T\u00e1naiste and Fine Gael leader Simon Harris, speaking late last year, said the return-hub proposal was not the same as the former UK government\u2019s failed plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda to have their claims processed. <\/p>\n

Mr O\u2019Callaghan said the wider reform of Europe\u2019s deportation system was still \u201cquite a bit away\u201d from being approved. <\/p>\n

The Dublin Bay South TD said the amount the State spends on private accommodation for asylum seekers was \u201cnot sustainable\u201d and needs to be reined in. Running asylum accommodation directly was cheaper than paying private companies to provide temporary housing, he said. <\/p>\n

Mr O\u2019Callaghan was speaking in Brussels where he was meeting figures in the European Parliament in advance of Ireland assuming the rotating EU presidency next year. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Government would be open to sending unsuccessful asylum seekers to sites outside the EU\u2019s borders while deportation…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":86281,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[9,10,13,14,6,7335,11,12,15,16,5,7,8,65,66,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-86280","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-featured-news","11":"tag-featurednews","12":"tag-headlines","13":"tag-irish-politics","14":"tag-latest-news","15":"tag-latestnews","16":"tag-main-news","17":"tag-mainnews","18":"tag-news","19":"tag-top-stories","20":"tag-topstories","21":"tag-world","22":"tag-world-news","23":"tag-worldnews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86280\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}