Is the EU’s African migrant hubs plan dead on arrival?
Brussels’ largest political faction wants to ship illegal immigrants to Africa, but the EU’s own laws could get in the way
The leader of the center-right European People’s Party has called on the EU to set up migrant return hubs in Africa to enable swift deportations. However, similar schemes have failed before.
In an editorial for Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on Monday, Weber argued that the recent migrant invasion of Ceuta was enabled by Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’ pro-immigration policies. Enforcement of EU migration law, the senior Brussels power-player argued, can no longer be left up to individual member states.
“Just as a village policeman has no chance against organized crime, no single member state will defeat the internationally operating people smuggling mafia alone,” he wrote. “Only a united Europe can put an end to their activities.”
The EU, he continued, should set up migrant hubs in Africa, where illegal immigrants and failed asylum seekers could be sent once ordered to leave the bloc’s member states. Governments in Africa could be enticed with “offers of strong trade relations, economic cooperation, and [pathways to] legal migration,” he suggested.
Weber is not a fringe MEP. The EPP is the largest umbrella party in the European Parliament, and counts European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, and Parliament President Roberta Metsola among its members.
The EPP’s stance on immigration has never been considered ‘hardline’, and the group’s manifesto once described housing refugees as the EU’s “responsibility.” However, with right-wing parties surging in popularity across the bloc – 27% of sitting MEPs now belong to the so-called ‘far right’ – the group has finally hardened its positions. Yet even if the EU elite now has the political will to deport migrants to Africa, Weber’s scheme faces some significant obstacles – from other EU institutions.
Are migrant return hubs legal?
Until recently, the EU’s common rules on deportation were set out in the 2008 Return Directive, with enforcement left up to individual member states. The directive explicitly banned ‘return hubs’ in third countries, specifying that migrants could only be sent back to their home countries or countries they had transited on their way to the EU – with these countries’ consent.
This directive was overruled in June with the passage of the Return Regulation. The regulation allows for the establishment of return hubs and the detention of illegal immigrants pending removal, and forces individual member states to recognize deportation orders issued in other states.
We’ve just concluded the final negotiations on the Return Regulation - and we have a deal.
We now have longer detention, real entry bans, and return hubs in third countries.
The era of deportations has begun.
If you try to enter Europe illegally — you will never make Europe… pic.twitter.com/tncWDVt6Wu
