Authorities of Five EU Countries Agreed on the Creation of Migrant Detention Centers Outside Europe
Asylum seekers may also be sent there.
Migrant center in Passau (Germany). AP Photo / Kerstin Joensson, File
The authorities of Austria, Germany, Greece, Denmark, and the Netherlands have agreed on the creation of a unified model for migrant detention centers outside the EU, reports "Current Time" with reference to the Associated Press following talks between ministers of the five countries in Copenhagen.
The first centers could host migrants whose asylum applications were rejected in the EU, as early as 2027.
Negotiations, in particular, are being conducted with African countries.
Danish Minister for Immigration and Integration, Morten Bødskov, stated that the decision to create "return centers" for migrants who were denied asylum in European countries opens the way for a "fundamental transformation of the common European system of migration and asylum."
In February, MEPs approved new conditions for the "safe third country" concept — a state of which the asylum seeker is not a citizen, but which can theoretically offer them protection.
Such a country was agreed to be any state with which the EU or an individual member state has an agreement on the reception and accommodation of asylum seekers, or a country through which the person traveled on their way to the EU. In such a case, Europe has the right not to consider their application.