The European Commission has announced plans for a new regulation aimed at increasing deportations of rejected asylum seekers by allowing their transfer to deportation centers outside the European Union.
The initiative follows Italy’s model agreement with Albania, where deportation centers have been established outside EU borders to facilitate the expulsion of illegal immigrants.
European Commissioner for Home Affairs and Migration Magnus Brunner said the proposal seeks to expand deportation options beyond an individual’s country of origin, enabling transfers to third countries deemed safe and willing to accept deportees through repatriation agreements.
“My goal is to allow member states to think about new, innovative ideas, including return centers,” the Austrian commissioner told journalists on Monday.
“We want to give people the feeling that they have control of what is happening in Europe,” he added, stressing that should Brussels fail to deal with the issue of illegal immigration it would “completely lose the confidence of our citizens.”
The initiative would replace the existing 2008 directive on migration and, as a regulation, would have direct effect — meaning it would apply immediately to member states and not require national parliaments to pass legislation, circumventing the usual two-year national implementation process.
It would be introduced alongside the controversial Asylum and Migration Pact agreed by the bloc, which obligates member states to receive their fair share of migrants or face financial penalties of up to €20,000 per migrant refused.
Currently, only a fraction of migrants who enter the European Union illegally are deported, with the practice thwarted by insufficient repatriation agreements with countries of origin, legal challenges, and a lack of desire from some national governments to tackle the crisis.
“Four out of five people remain in the European Union,” Brunner said. “That’s unacceptable.”
The proposed regulation introduces stricter conditions for those who remain in EU territory despite having received a deportation order. Notably, it eliminates the deadline for voluntary returns, extends detention periods for individuals at risk of absconding before deportation, and imposes a 10-year re-entry ban on deported persons — doubling the current five-year restriction.
While initially scolded by Eurocrats for the approach, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s administration now appears to have been the trendsetter within the European Union in establishing reception centers in Albania, following a similar but failed plan introduced by the former Conservative government in the United Kingdom involving Rwanda.
The Italian government, however, has still faced considerable pushback from the judiciary, thwarting plans over ambiguities surrounding the definition of a “safe” country.
Brussels reportedly intends to reassess the definition of a “safe country” by June, potentially broadening deportation possibilities throughout the bloc.
