The EU member states have created the legal basis for the establishment of controversial deportation centers in third countries. As a final formal step, EU interior ministers gave the law the green light at a meeting in Luxembourg.
The European Parliament had previously approved it. The planned deportation centers - also called "return hubs" - are intended to bring people who are legally obliged to leave the country and who cannot be returned to their country of origin - for example because their home country refuses to take them back.
Germany has been pushing the project forward for some time together with Austria, Denmark, Greece and the Netherlands. The rules are due to come into force in the coming weeks.
Federal Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt is hoping for a concrete agreement on the establishment of “return hubs” with third countries this year. “That's a tough plan to drill into, and we have to discuss the willingness of the other side, i.e. the third countries, in the next few months,” said the CSU politician before the meeting with his counterparts.
“Preliminary discussions” are currently being held with various countries. Dobrindt did not provide details about which third countries are being negotiated with. Rwanda, Uganda, Libya and Kazakhstan are always discussed.
The human rights organization Amnesty International fears possible human rights violations in the deportation centers and warns against agreements with conflict-ridden and politically unstable countries.
Social Democrats and the Greens also question the model. The agreement on the new asylum rules was preceded by a joint decision by the European People's Party (EPP) led by Manfred Weber (CSU) and the right wing in the EU Parliament. The EPP had discussed the issue with right-wing parties, among other things, in a controversial WhatsApp chat group.
The new migration rules also specify how rejected asylum seekers must cooperate in their own deportation if they do not want to be detained. You are threatened across Europe with the reduction or cancellation of maintenance benefits or the confiscation of travel documents.
Detention pending deportation is also possible if the responsible officials in the member states believe there is a risk of absconding or there is a risk to national security. The permissible period of detention will be extended under the new rules, to a maximum of 24 months, with a possible extension of another six months in special cases.
The EU interior ministers' decision was also influenced by the migration crisis in Ceuta in July. According to the ministers, we want to be better prepared for such an event. “The point is that we recognize when waves of migration at the external borders are clearly not caused by a humanitarian emergency, but by disinformation, by smuggling,” said Interior Minister Dobrindt. “This needs to be identified quickly and then evaluated.”
If around 72,000 people, mostly young men, set off from Morocco to the Spanish exclave of Ceuta in one day - on foot or by swimming - then this is obviously a case that has nothing to do with classic asylum applications, says Dobrindt. For such cases, the EU now wants to establish a crisis mechanism that can suspend the regular asylum procedure. The border protection agency Frontex should also be strengthened.
The new rules represent an additional tightening of the Common European Asylum System (GEAS). A Geas reform, the so-called Asylum Pact, came into force in June. Here, too, the core issue was stricter entry and asylum rules. At the same time, the main arrival countries such as Italy and Greece should be relieved.
The number of irregular entries into the EU and asylum applications has fallen significantly in recent years - as in Germany.
