Germany and a group of like-minded states are confident that rejected asylum seekers will soon be deported to holding centres outside the EU after the European parliament cleared the way for a harsh new approach to illegal migration.
Berlin is working closely with the governments of the Netherlands, Denmark, Austria and Greece, and with the support of Finland and Italy, to create “return hubs” by the end of the year in countries — expected to be mostly in Africa — that are willing to host asylum seekers who cannot be returned to their home countries.
As the hard-right National Rally soars in the polls, President Macron of France and his centre-right government have also signalled support.
On Thursday the big centre-right bloc in the European parliament teamed up with the hard right to pass the Return Regulation, drafted by the European Commission and endorsed in principle last year by national governments to make deportation procedures “faster and more effective”.
As well as giving the EU’s blessing to deals between member states and host countries — if it passes final approval by governments and parliament — the legislation will provide for migrants to be held for up to two years and tracked with measures including electronic tags. Deportation orders in one country will be enforced across the EU to close loopholes that allow migrants to move within the bloc to avoid deportation.
Alexander Dobrindt, the German interior minister, said after the vote: “We aim to have reached agreements with third countries by the end of this year to take the next step — the establishment of these return hubs.”
François-Xavier Bellamy, leader of the French conservative Republicans group in the European parliament, said: “The decisive changes introduced by this regulation will make it possible to simply guarantee the straightforward principle that if you come to Europe illegally, rest assured that you will not stay here.”
Giorgia Meloni, the right-wing prime minister of Italy, called the vote, which was won by 389 to 206, “a decisive moment” in Europe’s fight against illegal immigration. Meloni has already started an Italian scheme processing migrants in Albania, but only about 80 people have been sent there after legal challenges slowed its introduction.
Comparisons are being made, both by supporters and by critics, with the British plan to deport undocumented migrants to Rwanda. The Labour government abandoned the scheme in 2024 after the Tory government spent £700 million on it.
The hardliners’ victory reflects anger in Europe about illegal migration and the failure of EU members to expel 80 per cent of people whose asylum claims have been rejected. The number of arrivals fell last year but hostility is still fuelled by the visible presence of undocumented migrants in city streets and reports of their involvement in crime.
Critics on the left said they were appalled by the vote because it confirmed a rightward lurch by the parliament since hard-right gains in 2024 EU-wide elections. They said the vote marked the end of the mainstream voting blocs’ cordon sanitaire against the populist nationalist parties, including Alternative for Germany and the National Rally in France.
The legislation will allow countries to hold migrants indefinitely if they cannot be returned to their home countries. Experts and activists have called it a “Trump-inspired” effort to create a European iteration of ICE, the heavy-handed US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, and outsource responsibility for migrants.
Non-governmental organisations including Amnesty International said the legislation, drafted by the commission early last year, carried “grave risks of systematic human rights violations”. PICUM, which supports undocumented migrants, said the rules would send people “to deportation centres in countries they never set foot in” and “lead to increased surveillance and discrimination”. The International Red Cross noted that holding centres would be “outside of EU territory, where policymakers cannot guarantee that people’s rights will be upheld”.
The laws, if passed this year by the council of EU leaders and endorsed by the parliament, will create a framework for governments to make agreements with non-EU host countries. Left-wing parties and human rights groups promised to go to court to obstruct this, as they did in Britain over Rwanda and in Italy over Albania.
The German-led states aiming to pioneer the return hubs have declined to name the countries they expect to be destinations but diplomats are talking mainly about Africa. Uganda, a former British colony, and the former French colonies of Mauritania and Benin are among the states said to be interested.
