The leaders of 19 EU states have backed plans to offshore asylum by setting up so-called return hubs abroad for people whose applications for international protection have been rejected.
“We will personally lead the way to make sure our visions are brought to life,” they said, in an open letter published on Friday (19 June) against the backdrop of an EU summit in Brussels.
The letter was signed by Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, and Sweden.
Denmark has taken much of the credit, along with Italy. In a separate statement, Denmark’s left-leaning prime minister Mette Frederiksen said her country had been at the forefront of such initiatives.
“We have stood very much alone. But now there are many of us,” she said. Their hope is to have such hubs up and running before the year’s end, following a similar model to Italy’s deal with Albania whose five year budget is worth €670m.
