European ministers are set to hold discussions this week on proposals to transfer thousands of rejected asylum seekers to processing and removal centres located outside the continent, according to the head of the Council of Europe.
Alain Berset, the organisation’s secretary general, confirmed that the question of so-called third-country hubs would be raised at a multilateral level during a ministerial gathering in ChiΘinΔu, the capital of Moldova, on Friday. The meeting brings together senior government figures from across Europe and is expected to be attended by British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper.
Alongside the hub discussions, ministers are expected to sign off on a political declaration reaffirming the right of states to control their borders. The declaration is understood to address concerns from several governments that human rights law, particularly the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), has been used to block the removal of foreign nationals and rejected asylum seekers. Among those pushing for a reinterpretation of the convention is UK Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, who has joined a number of her European counterparts in calling for greater national discretion in applying its provisions.
The political declaration is expected to focus specifically on Articles 3 and 8 of the convention, which protect individuals from torture and inhumane treatment and guarantee the right to family life respectively. Both articles have been used in legal challenges to prevent deportations, and some governments argue that the courts have interpreted them too broadly in the context of immigration enforcement.
Berset acknowledged the sensitivity of the hub proposals but emphasised that any migrants removed from European territory must continue to benefit from the protections of the ECHR and the oversight of the European Court of Human Rights. He stressed that the conditions in any destination country would be a critical factor and that the human rights of those removed could not be set aside simply by moving people across borders.
The discussions come as the UK government under Keir Starmer has been actively exploring the return hub model as part of its response to the electoral rise of Reform UK. Home Secretary Mahmood told parliament in November that negotiations with several potential partner countries were underway, though no formal agreements have been announced. The previous Conservative government’s flagship Rwanda scheme, which was designed along similar lines, was ultimately ruled unlawful by the Supreme Court on the grounds that Rwanda could not be considered a safe third country. The policy was scrapped after costing the public purse approximately 715 million pounds without a single person being transferred.
At the European Union level, a number of member states including Denmark, Austria, Greece, Germany and the Netherlands have been involved in separate talks about the hub concept. Reports suggest that around twelve countries have been considered as possible destinations, among them Rwanda, Ghana, Senegal, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Uganda, Ethiopia, Uzbekistan, Armenia and Montenegro.
The backdrop to these discussions includes a letter signed by nine European nations last year, including Italy and Denmark, calling for greater national authority over migration and asylum decisions. Both the UK’s Reform Party and the Conservative Party have gone further, stating they would withdraw Britain from the ECHR altogether if they came to power.
Berset described the current moment as potentially a significant turning point for the international order, drawing parallels with earlier periods of upheaval such as the Cold War and the fall of the Berlin Wall. He suggested that the Council of Europe’s role was to remain both proactive and responsive during such periods of change, and that this week’s declaration, while not legally binding, represented an important step in that process.
Critics of the hub approach have pushed back strongly. Imran Hussain, Director of External Affairs at the Refugee Council, argued that offshore detention centres are costly, operationally difficult to implement, and unlikely to address the underlying weaknesses in European asylum systems. He pointed to evidence that voluntary return programmes consistently outperform forced removal in terms of cost-effectiveness and outcomes, and called for investment in faster decision-making and community support instead.
Broader statistics from Eurostat illustrate the scale of the challenge. Over the seven years leading up to 2023, between 450,000 and 500,000 people per year were ordered to leave the European Union, yet fewer than half actually did so, reflecting the logistical and legal difficulties involved in enforcing removals.
News Source: theguardian
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