Today, the European Commission introduced a proposed revision to the 2008 Return Directive, amending the EU legal framework on returns or deportations outside of the EU. Following pressure from certain member states, it also introduces a possible legal basis for ‘return hubs’ in EU law through “agreements or arrangements” with third countries.
“The European Commission has caved to the unworkable, expensive and inhumane demands of a few shrill anti-human rights and anti-migration governments. The Commission itself discarded the concept of ‘return hubs’ in 2018. It is well aware that these proposals will lead to human rights violations, waste millions of euros and alienate allies – at a time when the EU needs friends.
Despite this, today’s proposal lays the ground for states to send people to countries to which they have no connection, to languish in detention centres, with little credible guarantees that their rights will be upheld. Frankly, this is a new low for Europe,” said Eve Geddie, Director of Amnesty International’s European Institutions Office.
Amnesty International and over 100 human rights organizations across Europe have long warned that these proposals are an alarming departure from international law, would have severe diplomatic, legal and financial implications for Europe, and are likely to result in a grave pattern of human rights violations, including refoulement and arbitrary detention.
“Across Australia’s offshore detention scheme, Italy’s agreement with Albania, or the UK’s aborted Rwanda scheme, we have seen these tried-and-failed policies before. They consistently result in drawn out litigation, costly centres sitting empty, lives in limbo, as well as systematic arbitrary detention and other grave rights violations. Such proposals are not only endlessly cruel, but catastrophic in reality.”
Beyond return hubs, other aspects of the proposals are also deeply troubling, punitive and disproportionate. These include expanding and extending the detention of people subject to return decisions based on vague and punitive grounds, new sanctions for failing to ‘cooperate’ sufficiently with return procedures, an increased use of entry bans, limited options for voluntary departure, and expansive derogations for people deemed a security risk – circumventing criminal justice proceedings and fair trial safeguards.
Following the adoption of the Pact on Migration and Asylum last year, many more people will be seeing their asylum claims rejected in fast-track procedures across the EU. Instead of focusing on improving asylum systems at home, prioritizing dignified voluntary returns, and ensuring support for inclusion and access to a broad range of residence permits beyond asylum, this proposal spells a further stripping of their rights.
“Today’s announcements signal the worrying direction the new European Commission plans to take on migration and asylum, and an alarming disregard for international law and evidence-based policy.
“The EU’s lack of commitment to international solidarity and responsibility-sharing will not be lost on countries outside Europe, and risks undermining the global refugee protection system – at a time when Europe should be building partnerships, not burning bridges. This punitive, detention- and enforcement-based approach will only increase the costs in national budgets and most crucially, the suffering of people whose rights are restricted and violated,” said Geddie.