MEPs vote to allow people to be deported to places they have never been to, as NGOs express fears over new ‘safe third countries’ list
The EU has moved closer to creating offshore centres for migrants and asylum seekers, after centre-right and far-right MEPs united for tougher migration policies.
MEPs voted for legal changes that will give authorities more options to deport asylum seekers, including sending people to countries they have never been to.
Under the new rules, expected to apply from June, a person seeking asylum can be deported to a country outside the EU, even if they have only passed through it, or to a place to which they have no link, as long as a European government has signed an agreement with the receiving state.
The vote effectively underwrites Italy’s deal with Albania and the Dutch government’s agreement with Uganda on the deportation of people whose asylum claims in the Netherlands have been turned down.
