The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) has been actively advising EU states hoping to set up so-called ‘return hubs’ outside the bloc, where rejected asylum seekers can be kept before eventually departing to their final destinations.
“We have not only been approached by those member states, but we have also been proactively advising them,” Jean-Nicolas Beuze, who heads the Brussels office of the UN agency, told EUobserver on Friday (5 June).
Return hubs have grabbed headlines for months and were given extra impetus following the political agreement reached earlier this week on the EU’s deportation bill.
Austria, Denmark, Germany, Greece, and the Netherlands are now among those taking an early lead in their creation. Both Germany and the Netherlands want such hubs set up before the year’s end.
Where they will be created remains uncertain, but Kenya, Senegal, Uganda, and Uzbekistan are among those previously reported as possible host countries.
