Invited on 30 January by the Polish Presidency of the Council of the EU to reflect on new and innovative ways of managing migratory flows, particularly in the context of the forthcoming new directive on the return of illegal immigrants, the EU’s home affairs ministers have not yet been able to identify any concrete measures or to give more substance to the famous concept of return centres or ‘hubs’ presented last May by some fifteen countries.
The idea would be to return people who are unable to stay in the EU and who are the subject of a return decision to dedicated third countries, but who still have to wait to find out to which country (origin or transit) they will be returned.
While the Commission intends to propose a revised version of the 2008 Returns Directive in March - again probably in the form of a directive that would strengthen certain aspects such as the possibility of detaining people refused asylum, the obligations of these same people and the suspensive effect of certain decisions - discussions on Thursday had not yet revealed whether the Commission would also propose a written contribution on this occasion to explain these potential ‘return hubs’ in third countries.
At the end of the meeting, the Commissioner for Internal Affairs and Migration, Magnus Brunner, promised “ambitious” legislation on the current Returns Directive, with “clear obligations” for those who have to be returned and stricter rules for those who pose a security risk.
The proposal will also aim to strengthen cooperation between Member States and encourage them to recognise more automatically return decisions issued by other Member States, as this obligation to return should be valid everywhere, the Commissioner pointed out. However, several countries, such as France, are opposed to automatic mutual recognition and would prefer voluntary arrangements.
According to Magnus Brunner, this ‘returns’ legislation is all the more urgent because it is the “missing piece” in the ‘Pact on Migration and Asylum’.
The Commissioner, who was “in listening mode” to the needs of the Member States, also stressed the need to strengthen partnerships with third countries on readmissions and to make better use of “the tools at our disposal”, such as visa policy, which will be the subject of a new strategy at the end of 2025.
But on the subject of ‘return hubs’, the Commissioner remained evasive, saying only that this was part of the discussions underway on ‘innovative ways’.
During the morning’s discussion, a number of questions were raised about this potential scheme, which remain unanswered: how can we be sure that this scheme would be legally sound? With which trusted third country could the concept be developed? Which Member State and in what way would a Member State be responsible for people who cannot be returned?
Although Turkey was briefly mentioned as a country that could possibly be approached, other Member States expressed their refusal to rely on the countries of the Western Balkans, particularly those that are geographically close to them, fearing that people sent to these third countries would not easily return to their country of origin.
According to one source, the ministers were divided between those wishing to create these return ‘hubs’ as far away as possible and those wishing to deal with third countries closer to home.
By June 2025, the Commission will also review the criterion of the link between a migrant refused protection and the third country to which he or she will be returned, a criterion that forms part of the Asylum Procedures Regulation.
But on this point, there is a broad consensus within the member countries to “remove this connecting link”, explained a diplomatic source, and the ministers expect the Commission to propose removing it.
This revision of the personal link could also take place as early as March, at the same time as the legislation on returns.
But the discussions on Thursday also failed to produce a clear idea of the famous list of ‘safe third countries’ that the Commission had announced at the same time as the new legislation on returns. According to some sources, it is not certain that a list will be presented in March.
On the subject of the instrumentalisation of migration by hostile third countries, one of the main priorities of the Polish Presidency of the Council of the EU, the debate on Thursday morning did not go beyond the recommendations made in December by the Commission in its communication on the same subject (see EUROPE 13543/1). Tomasz Siemoniak, Poland’s Minister of the Interior, reiterated the seriousness of the threat and stressed that the Polish Parliament was now considering a range of new measures. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)