Five European Union member states that want overseas ‘return hubs’ for rejected asylum seekers hope to identify prospective host countries by the autumn.
The claim was made by Dutch migration minister Bart van den Brink in a Friday, June 5th, interview with Euractiv. The Netherlands, working with Austria, Denmark, Germany, and Greece, are weighing up potential methods and non-EU sites for housing migrants awaiting deportation.
Many such suggestions involve locations in Africa, suggested home of the UK’s failed ‘Rwanda Plan,’ but van den Brink is keeping an open mind:
[BQ] We have to bring [this] to the table in the fall, to see whether there is any possibility to step out with the names of the countries. … It’s all around Europe, [s]o it can be more than just Africa.
According to van den Brink, the proposed hubs would not be detention centres but temporary facilities designed for people awaiting return to their countries of origin or another destination.
