{"id":326768,"date":"2025-08-08T02:38:14","date_gmt":"2025-08-08T02:38:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/326768\/"},"modified":"2025-08-08T02:38:14","modified_gmt":"2025-08-08T02:38:14","slug":"eu-countries-increasingly-keen-on-sending-migrants-outside-bloc-for-processing-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/326768\/","title":{"rendered":"EU countries increasingly keen on sending migrants outside bloc for processing \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

When the UK<\/a> pledged to send migrants<\/a> to Rwanda<\/a> three years ago, the EU<\/a> said the measure was inhumane and broke international law.<\/p>\n

But with rising xenophobic sentiment and more right-wing governments coming to power on the continent, the bloc is warming to such \u201cinnovative solutions\u201d to curb immigration<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there is a broad support,\u201d said Danish migration minister Kaare Dybvad, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency. Sending asylum seekers outside the bloc \u201chas so much traction now\u201d, he told the Financial Times.<\/p>\n

Denmark<\/a>, Italy<\/a> and Germany<\/a> have been among those advocating for centres to be set up in non-EU countries to house people awaiting an asylum decision or repatriation.<\/p>\n

Dybvad, a Social Democrat who led Denmark\u2019s own failed Rwanda plan, recalled the backlash triggered by this idea. The Danish government shelved the scheme amid a domestic political uproar in January 2023, and the UK\u2019s supreme court struck down the British plan later that year.<\/p>\n

\"DanishDanish minister of immigration and integration Kaare Dybvad (right) in conversation with Austrian interior minister Gerhard Karner. Photograph: Olivier Hoslet <\/p>\n

By contrast, Dybvad said, \u201cnow when I meet with colleagues from big member states like Germany, France, Poland, Italy\u201d there was \u201cvery strong support for moving forward\u201d.<\/p>\n

German interior minister Alexander Dobrindt, a Bavarian conservative, last month said that \u201cmodels involving third countries have majority support. A vast majority of member states have made it clear that this is a path the EU must take.\u201d<\/p>\n

The shift has been particularly stark in Germany, which 10 years ago opened up to refugees from Syria and other conflict zones, with then-chancellor Angela Merkel<\/a> reassuring citizens that \u201cwe can handle it\u201d (\u201cWir schaffen das\u201d).<\/p>\n

But anti-migrant sentiment stoked by the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) and several deadly attacks by migrants have led Berlin to adopt increasingly harsher measures.<\/p>\n

Other countries previously supportive of migrants, such as Luxembourg, have also changed tack as right-wing governments took over.<\/p>\n

The EU\u2019s stunning shift on the \u201cexternalisation\u201d of migration comes amid a surge in public support for the far right, which has made immigration its cri du coeur.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Deportation flights signal Germany\u2019s pivot to hardline stance on migrationOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

But moves to outsource asylum have suffered legal setbacks, with human rights advocates warning that they could undermine the very foundation the EU was set up on.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a broader trend in migration and asylum policymaking in the EU to make human rights secondary to political interests,\u201d said Olivia Sundberg Diez, migration advocate at Amnesty International.<\/p>\n

\"DemonstratorsDemonstrators near the gates of 10 Downing Street in London in May 2024. Photograph: Benjamin Cremel\/AFP via Getty Images <\/p>\n

Britain\u2019s scheme \u2013 under which the UK would have sent asylum seekers to Rwanda for their claims to be processed there \u2013 was struck down by the UK supreme court amid concerns the people sent there could face harm. Then-prime minister Rishi Sunak<\/a> tried to salvage the scheme by designating the country as \u201csafe\u201d, but the current government abandoned the plan.<\/p>\n

A similar argument used by Italy \u2013 to designate certain countries as \u201csafe\u201d for return \u2013 was challenged by the EU top court last week. Prime minister Giorgia Meloni<\/a> reacted with fury, accusing the European Court of Justice of over-reach.<\/p>\n

Andreina de Leo, a migration researcher at Maastricht University, said the ruling was \u201cnot surprising\u201d as it backed up Italian courts. But for Meloni and her right-wing government, she said, \u201cthis plan has acquired such a symbolic meaning\u201d that the premier had to lash out.<\/p>\n

Meloni last year struck a deal with Albania to set up closed centres where migrants would be transferred while their Italian asylum applications were being processed \u2013 and most likely rejected.<\/p>\n

After Italian courts challenged the scheme, Rome repurposed the facilities to house migrants awaiting deportation. A few dozen people have since been taken there, though most had to be taken back to Italy again before being repatriated, adding to the costs.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be honest, this concept doesn\u2019t work very well,\u201d said Maciej Duszczyk, Poland\u2019s under-secretary of state for migration.<\/p>\n

\"CivilCivil rights activists protest after migrants intercepted in Italian waters arrive at Shengjin port in Albania in 2024. Photograph: Adnan Beci\/AFP via Getty Images <\/p>\n

Still, the European Commission has backed the idea of sending people awaiting deportation to \u201creturn hubs\u201d outside the EU \u2013 such as the repurposed Albanian centres.<\/p>\n

Brussels also drafted legislation that could make Italy\u2019s original plan a reality, by proposing an EU list of \u201csafe\u201d countries, and allowing member states to send asylum seekers there even if they don\u2019t have a link to those places.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Italian model will be possible again,\u201d said one EU official, who added that governments would \u201cmake the necessary adjustments\u201d for asylum processing to work outside the bloc.<\/p>\n

Germany is in talks with Rwanda to replicate the UK scheme, according to two people familiar with the discussions, though it is unclear how advanced the negotiations are given previous legal objections.<\/p>\n

Rwanda also said this week it had agreed to take 250 migrants deported from the US, according to the government in Kigali.<\/p>\n

The Netherlands, meanwhile, has been in talks with Uganda \u2013 a country that sentences LGBT+ people to death \u2013 about setting up a \u201ctransit hub\u201d, according to the Dutch ministry of asylum and migration.<\/p>\n

Denmark\u2019s Dybvad said centres would be ideally set up in \u201ccountries in north Africa\u201d or other \u201cstable countries, with stable governments\u201d.<\/p>\n

The EU already has arrangements to curb migration and is providing funding to countries including Tunisia and Libya, where the authorities have repeatedly been accused of violating human rights.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou facilitate human rights abuses, not just for migrants but also for citizens [of these countries],\u201d said Tineke Strik, a Green member of the European Parliament, in reference to the Tunisian government\u2019s crackdown on NGOs and dissidents.<\/p>\n

While fewer migrants left the Tunisian shores in the first six months of this year compared with the same period last year, more have embarked on the perilous journey from Libya, according to the EU\u2019s migration agency Frontex.<\/p>\n

Human rights activists say this points to the limitations of Europe\u2019s efforts to curb immigration by paying off authoritarian governments.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are unworkable and inhumane proposals that are extremely costly both on a human level, but also for the management of migration,\u201d said Amnesty\u2019s Sundberg Diez.<\/p>\n

\u201cGovernments are ignoring those costs to make grand political statements on promises that they may be unable to deliver on.\u201d \u2013 Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2025<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When the UK pledged to send migrants to Rwanda three years ago, the EU said the measure was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":326769,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5310],"tags":[365,2000,299,1824,40,5804,2945,3106],"class_list":{"0":"post-326768","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-germany","8":"tag-denmark","9":"tag-eu","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-germany","12":"tag-immigration","13":"tag-migrant-crisis","14":"tag-rwanda","15":"tag-uk-politics"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114990829296114791","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326768","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=326768"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326768\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/326769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=326768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=326768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=326768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}