EU wants to legalize “return centers” to put migrants away. Controversial measure can have “boomerang effect”

Proposal to legalize detention centers in third countries was made by the European Migration Commissioner at an informal meeting in Warsaw last week and may be officially introduced by the von der Leyen executive as a bill at the end of February

When Ursula Von der Leyen’s chosen to his new executive were heard in November in the European Parliament, the candidate for commissioner of internal affairs and migrations argued that the bloc should remain “open” to explore “new ideas” to lock the irregular entry of people in the European Union.

Over more than three hours of parliamentary hearing, Magnus Brunner was betting on the externalization of migrations, defending, among others, the possibility of creating centers outside the community territory to put migrants-something that, then defended, it is possible to do A “human and cool” form and something that, months later, proposed to the Member States as a “innovative idea” to be included in European legislation, assuming that more discussions about “the type of concept” are still needed to implement.

As, the proposal was made last week at a informal meeting of representatives of European institutions and the Member States who make up the Schengen space in Warsaw, the capital of Poland, which currently holds the EU rotating presidency. And as the minutes of the January 30 meeting show, the idea was “well welcomed and described as ‘a possible dissuator of irregular migration’ by Austria, Bulgaria, Chéquia, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Italy, Latvia and Malta”.

On the contrary, the news channel, Portugal and Spain raised “doubts” about the legality and operationality of the proposal, with Ireland and Belgium to underline “the need for measures to be realistic and feasible and respect fundamental rights”. The proposal “should be published by the commission as early as this month, starting the legislative process”, information that the Community Executive’s advisory did not want to confirm to Euronews.

“I am glad that Portugal is not in this group that adheres to this measure without questioning it, a measure I see a little as a result of what has been happening in many countries that want to make external European borders watery,” the Portugal tells CNN Portugal Sociologist Pedro Góis, scientific director of the Migration Observatory, which opposes the available data on Migratory movements for the EU.

“What data shows is that there were fewer people to get irregularly into the EU last year, show that most come with a visa and come by plane. I pity we are going this way and do not see how this proposal can result. But, like everything in the time we are living, I realize that this has an important media effect in a year when we will have, and I see this to have an effect boomerang when Europe needs migrants the most. ”

“Laws change with majorities”

Brunner may invoke an “innovative idea”, but the creation of the so -called “return centers” for migrants whose asylum requests are rejected in a given country is anything but innovative.

Not only the migration pact and asylum that the EU finally approved last May, after more than four years of harsh negotiations, already dating this idea, as there are countries that have tried to apply the concept to the ground in recent years – the kingdom to head United with Rwanda, a failed process, and Italy with Albania, no less failed but just entered a new chapter.

Elected two years ago under a series of promises to combat immigration, Giorgia Meloni signed a multimillionaire agreement with Albania to create in that country “return centers” that welcome up to 3,000 asylum claimants who irregularly reached Italy – a measure that the president of the European Commission even classified as, but that.

“It seems that neither von der Leyen nor the first-law of Italy’s far right considered existing laws,” last November. The same article cited Chiara Favili, a specialist in European law at the University of Florence, to emphasize that “since 1993, several European states have proposed similar solutions, but have always been rejected [porque] Agreements like Italy with Albania are irreconcilable with some fundamental norms. ”

The point is that the norms and laws can be changed, just that there is political will, which can explain how and why last week Rome (so far empty) you paid to build in Albania, says Pedro Góis.

“Internal laws change with majorities within these countries, Italy will probably be preparing the legal architecture necessary to advance with the operation-the political sense here matters more than the legal.” The investigator assumes that, “under the Geneva Convention and the Refugee Statute Convention, those who ask for protection to see their process judged and decided and the law does not say that this can be done in a third country – but it is true That this international legislation was created at a particular moment, following World War II, with a certain assumption that today changed. ”

“These strategies do not result”

Unlike other areas, community decisions on migration are made by a qualified majority and not consensus, that is, a legislative proposal advances if it has the support of at least 15 of the 27 member states representing at least 65% of Block population. And here too, a majority can be informed for European law to provide for the sending of immigrants to third countries.

“I don’t see how we could stop these initiatives except by changing the political majorities of the Member States, and I see this happening in countries such as Hungary, Slovakia, Italy…”, says Góis. And Germany, the largest EU country, whose likely future chancellor?

“As long as there are no elections, this majority does not exist in Germany, we have had this fear with Mrs. Le Pen in France and then she didn’t win, ”says the scientific director of the Migration Observatory. “It is necessary to wait to see how majority will generate, because then the power balances often mitigate the desire of some right parties to make restrictive decisions, even countries such as Italy have greatly moderated legislative action in relation to that were the campaign proposals [de Meloni].”

Still without a majority to change the European law, and despite the fall in the number of people who reach the EU on irregular roads, the data already show a clear increase in the number of migrants sent from member states to third countries-only in the third trimester of 2024 were 27,740, more 34.7% compared to the same period of the previous year.

In his parliamentary hearing in November, Magnus Brunner said that the creation of return centers outside the EU “it is only possible if it is treated in a human and legally safe way” and assumed that any measure in this sense will have to be taken “always in compliance with EU values ​​and [suas] legal obligations ”. For humanitarian organizations, this compliance is irreconcilable in an initiative that will result in endless detention and more suffering for people who, under current European legislation, cannot be sent against their will to countries with which they have no connection.

“Actions similar to this, such as the centers created in Tunisia, Libya, Morocco, and EU agreements with Mali and other African Center countries to try to block migration routes, show that in practice they Strategies do not result, ”says sociologist Pedro Góis. “The solution has to be diplomacy, the creation of accessible regular roads that prevent people from having to get in these terrible adventures. The solution is multilateralism and having agreements with countries of origin, it is certainly not to build walls and create detention fields – because a migrant in transit is not a criminal. ”