The European Union’s novel idea to build deportation camps outside its borders to house the asylum seekers whose applications have been denied continues to fuel concerns and doubts about its legal and logistical feasibility and the potential impact on human rights.
The unprecedented project – known euphemistically as “return hubs” – is expected to be included in a legislative proposal that the European Commission will present sometime before the next leaders’ summit in March.
It will mark the first result of the political push to work on “new ways” to manage irregular migration, a vague concept most commonly associated with outsourcing schemes.
The main focus is now on returns: the deportation of asylum seekers who have arrived in the bloc, exhausted all their legal avenues to request international protection and are therefore asked to leave the territory. The EU has for years struggled with a low rate of deportations and sees the faraway centres as an “innovative solution” worth trying.
During an informal meeting of interior ministers last week, Magnus Brunner, the European Commissioner for Migration, pitched “stronger rules on detention” and the “possibility of developing return hubs,” according to the minutes exclusively seen by Euronews.
The untested plan, though, is ridden with high risks.
In a position paper released on Thursday, the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) issued a pointed warning to the Commission, insisting any project to establish “return hubs” must come with strong safeguards to guarantee lawful and dignified treatment.
The fact the camps would be built outside the bloc does not exempt compliance with EU law, the agency says, as member states and Frontex would remain “accountable for rights violations at the hubs and during any transfers.”
FRA suggests the bloc should sign a “legally-binding agreement” with the host country that would set “minimum standards for the conditions and treatment” of the relocated migrants and introduce a “duty” to mitigate violations of fundamental rights. (So far, Brussels has not given any indication of where the hubs might be built.)
According to the agency, migrants sent to the centres must have a “valid and enforceable decision” based on an “individual assessment” of their asylum applications and never be subject to collective expulsions, which are illegal under international law. Vulnerable people and children should be excluded from the scheme.
“As the EU and member states try to find solutions to manage migration, they should not forget about their obligations to protect people’s lives and their rights,” Sirpa Rautio, the agency’s director, said in a statement.
