EU Return Act: Focus on deportation centers in third countries!

EU Return Act: Focus on deportation centers in third countries!

Laimgrubengasse 10, 1060 Wien, Österreich - On March 11, 2025, Migration Commissioner Magnus Brunner presented the new EU Return Act, which should enable Member States to set up deportation centers abroad. According to the draft law, these centers for rejected asylum seekers should act similar to prisons. The Green Group in the European Parliament, represented by Thomas Waitz and Meri Disoski, criticizes this approach as dangerous for human rights and as legally questionable. They fear that the EU is blackmailed by these measures and that the real migration problems will not be addressed. According to sueddeutsche.de , the lack of deportation rate is considered the reason for the urgency of this law, since only about twenty percent of the exhaustive asylum applicants actually abandoned.

Reform of the sloping controls

A central element of the reform is the so-called "European Return Order", which enables a rejected asylum application to be registered in the Schengen system. This means that all Member States must recognize a country's decision. This standardization aims to tighten the regulations and increase migrants' duties. In this way, they should cooperate with the authorities under the threat of punishments and provide information about their whereabouts. In the event of a risk of escape, there are even detains until deportation.
The controversy of the law is particularly evident in the plans for deportation centers outside the EU, as initiated by Ursula von der Leyen. These facilities are intended to house asylum seekers whose applications have been finally rejected until they can be deported. This measure is not only sharply criticized by Greens and Social Democrats, but also from refugee organizations that fear inhumane conditions, such as ots.at report