Panicking EU desperately tries to bolt the door shut for migrants in crunch talks | World | News
EU interior ministers today approved legislation that opens the door to offshore “return hubs” for migrants, a last-gasp push by Denmark’s departing presidency to toughen the bloc’s borders before the year ends. The decision, taken under the chairmanship of Danish Immigration Minister Rasmus Stoklund, provides member states with the legal basis to establish reception and deportation centres in third countries.
The framework forms part of the New Pact on Migration and Asylum, agreed in principle last year. Final adoption still requires the backing of the European Parliament, with full implementation scheduled for mid-2026. Denmark has made migration its flagship issue during its six-month presidency, pressing for a common European returns system and closer cooperation with countries such as Tunisia, Egypt and Albania.
Copenhagen has repeatedly described the EU’s current deportation rate – about one in five orders enforced – as unacceptable. The new rules permit rejected asylum seekers to be transferred to non-EU facilities for up to 12 weeks while their appeals are processed and return arrangements are made.
From a British perspective, today’s vote appears to illustrate precisely why immigration control was a central driver of Brexit. In the 2016 referendum, roughly one-third of Leave voters cited the need to regain sovereignty over borders as their primary reason.
Before the vote, net migration from the EU regularly exceeded 200,000 a year; Brussels dictated who could enter and under what conditions. Leaving the EU freed the United Kingdom from the Dublin Regulation, mandatory relocation quotas and the biometric Eurodac database.
Post-Brexit net migration reached a peak of 745,000 in 2022, driven largely by non-EU routes, although Westminster now sets its own rules independently of Brussels.
The EU’s apparent scramble has drawn sharp criticism, with Amnesty International condemning the return-hub plans as a new low in migrant treatment, warning of serious risks of refoulement and prolonged detention in countries with poor human-rights records.
Oxfam has described the approach as cruel and ineffective. More than 200 academics have criticised the Pact for introducing group-based fast-track expulsions that undermine individual asylum rights.
Conversely, hard-right governments in Slovakia and elsewhere insist the measures remain too weak and continue to demand naval blockades in the Mediterranean.
Poland, already hosting millions of Ukrainian refugees, has signalled it will seek exemptions from solidarity obligations. The European Commission’s original March proposal avoided explicit mention of external hubs to limit legal challenges, but today’s ministerial agreement marks a significant step toward their creation.
As the EU rushes to tighten its external borders, Britain, outside the bloc and free to chart its own course, watches a process which Brexiteers will doubtless claim vindicates the 2016 decision to take back control.
