EU approves new rules for deporting migrants to third countries

The Council of the European Union has given final approval to a new regulation on returning migrants who have no legal right to remain in the EU. The document allows EU member states, for the first time, to set up special centres in countries outside the bloc, where foreigners whose asylum claims have been rejected can be sent.

According to a statement from the EU Council, the new rules are meant to make the migrant return procedure more effective. The regulation will be published in the Official Journal of the EU and will enter into force the day after publication.

EU countries will be able to open so-called return centres in third countries on the basis of bilateral agreements. Migrants whose asylum applications have been finally rejected would be sent there. Such centres may only be set up in states that "respect international human rights standards and the principles of international law." Sending unaccompanied minors to these centres is prohibited.

Several European countries are already looking at possible sites for such centres. According to the news agency AFP, Denmark, Austria and Germany are exploring options for setting up return centres in Rwanda, Uganda or Uzbekistan.

Critics of the new regulation warn it will lead to mass deportations and racial profiling, drawing a parallel with practices they say are used in the United States. Human rights advocates also argue the new measures violate basic human rights, and that the centres themselves will prove both ineffective and costly.

Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz