19 EU countries call on European Commission to fund ‘return hubs’

COPENHAGEN: After the European Union significantly tightened its immigration policy earlier this month, 19 EU countries on Wednesday urged the European Commission to finance “return hubs” outside the bloc for failed asylum-seekers.

Interior ministers from the 27-member bloc greenlighted a package of measures on December 8 that include the opening of return hubs and harsher penalities for migrants who refuse to leave European territory.

Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania and Sweden called on the Commission to make the changes possible.

“Specifically, the EU countries want ... the Commission to help ensure, going forward, that the financing of, among other things, return centres can be done using EU funds,” the Danish immigration ministry said in a statement, with the signed letter sent to the Commission attached.

The European Parliament must still vote on the measures.

Denmark has made illegal immigration one of its main battlehorses during its six-month stint at the helm of the EU presidency, which ends at the end of the month.

“The work is not done, and I’m glad that there are now 19 countries that stand behind a letter calling on the EU system to provide diplomatic and economic help to ensure that the new and innovative solutions — such as return centres — will become a reality,” Danish Immigration Minister Rasmus Stoklund said in a statement.

“For years, Denmark has worked hard to persuade other European countries of Danish ideas such as moving the processing of asylum applications outside Europe, as well as other ideas involving cooperation with third countries outside the EU,” the ministry added.

“The group of EU countries that support such new and innovative solutions has steadily expanded,” it said.

Activists working with migrants have meanwhile denounced the measures, saying they violate migrants’ human rights and risk pushing them into danger.