Brussels: Migrants could be sent to overseas return hubs under new reforms criticized by rights watchdogs. If you read Washington’s latest security strategy slamming European migration policies and claiming the continent faces “civilisational erasure,” you might think the EU was throwing its borders wide open. In fact, irregular migration to the bloc is falling, and EU states just advanced their most restrictive migration rules yet in a bid to make it easier for members to swiftly detain and deport rejected asylum seekers.

According to Deutsche Welle , Denmark’s Immigration Minister Rasmus Stoklund stated that new reforms would help fix a “dysfunctional” EU system and restore a sense of “control.” However, these moves have drawn stark criticism from human rights watchdogs, with Amnesty accusing the bloc of mirroring the “harrowing, dehumanizing and unlawful mass arrests, detention and deportations in the US.”

The raft of reforms backed by EU home affairs ministers on Monday includes a legal rubber-stamp on
the idea of so-called “return hubs.” This could mean detention centers outside the EU where migrants may be sent to have asylum claims processed-or even as part of a one-way ticket out from Europe. The rule rewrite, which still needs to be negotiated with the European Parliament, would allow individual EU governments to strike up deals with states beyond the bloc’s borders and send migrants there-even if they have no ties to the country.

While Denmark began mulling ways to send migrants to Rwanda back in 2021, the first EU member to try it out in practice was Italy. It set up centers in its non-EU neighbor Albania last year, but Rome’s hubs were beset by legal challenges and put on hold. Italy’s interior minister said on Monday that agreement among ministers leaves Albania-based centers well-positioned to become the first real-world example of an EU return hub and to “resume” operations.

Migration policy analyst Helena Hahn commented that the “jury is still out” on what return hubs could look like beyond It
aly’s model-and above all, which non-EU states would be willing to host migrants bound for Europe. Charities and campaigners, including Human Rights Watch and Oxfam, have in the past slammed the EU for “shirking responsibility” by trying to outsource asylum processing.

Denmark’s Stoklund pushed back on those accusations on Monday, stating, “If we send someone to a return center, we will be responsible for respecting their human rights,” after talks in Brussels. EU states also backed new proposals designed to speed up deportations, with harsher penalties for migrants who ignore expulsion orders. That follows an earlier agreement on EU plans to downgrade trade ties with countries which fail to cooperate on deportations.

Ministers also approved a centralized list of “safe” countries which national authorities can use to fast-track decisions and deny residency to those least likely to be granted asylum. Only around 4% of Bangladeshis seeking asylum in the EU last year were accepted, for example, and Bangladesh
heads up the list of countries deemed safe by Brussels. Other states on the list include India, Colombia, Egypt, Morocco, and Tunisia.

EU states finalized one plan that analyst Helena Hahn sees as somewhat bucking the trend toward more restrictions. The so-called “solidarity pool” will see member states from Europe’s North and East either take in more migrants from Southern states where most asylum seekers arrive-or pay into a funding pot to support the likes of Cyprus, Spain, Italy, or Greece.

EU citizens often cite irregular immigration as one of their top concerns. Bloc-wide survey data from earlier this year saw people rank it second only to Russia’s war in Ukraine in a list of the biggest challenges facing the EU-ahead of the cost of living, climate change, and security and defense issues. Far-right parties focusing on anti-immigrant messaging are gaining popularity in many EU countries, with centrist forces trying to claw back votes.