The Government has “no immediate plans” to establish facilities in countries outside the EU to accommodate unsuccessful asylum seekers while deportation to their country of origin is arranged, Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said. Proposals to allow EU countries to strike deals to set up so-called return hubs outside their territories are picking up steam, with the Dutch, Danish and Italian governments pushing Brussels for approval to move ahead with plans for deportation hubs in Africa or potentially the western Balkans.The idea would be to send asylum seekers whose applications for international protection are denied to such sites, or facilities, while their deportation to their country of origin is arranged, an often complicated process which can take years. Amnesty International and other civil society organisations have expressed serious concerns that return hubs will not comply with international law. The civil society sector has also criticised the policy as outsourcing European governments’ obligations to asylum seekers to countries with spottier human rights records. Speaking on Tuesday, Martin said the Republic had “no immediate plans” to pursue deals to establish return hubs. He said the Government was “working hard” to speed up the amount of time it takes to rule on asylum applications. A “significant” number of cases where claims were rejected appeared to relate to people who were “economic migrants” and so did not qualify for protection, he said. More resources are being pumped into fast-tracking the appeals in cases where a person’s asylum claim has been refused by Department of Justice officials, Martin added. “Our experience is that the faster we can process applications, the better ... What was wrong in the past is that people were left hanging around for years before there’s any determination on their application,” he said. The Taoiseach was speaking at a press conference in Strasbourg, France, after delivering an address to the European Parliament.Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan last week said his officials would be watching to see how other countries sought to “operationalise” the idea for return hubs. “We’re going to adopt a pragmatic approach in respect to this, we haven’t seen any return hubs being developed yet. I have an open mind in respect of it. I’m not prepared to rule Ireland’s participation in them out at this stage,” he said.An EU-wide overhaul of asylum rules intended to fast-track certain types of cases and appeals took effect last month. The reformed system obliges the State to rule on applicant claims, plus any appeal, within 12 weeks. It applies to cases where the asylum seeker is from a country deemed “safe” or where they made an earlier asylum request in another EU country.Some 89 per cent of requests from asylum seekers for international protection were refused in an 11-month trial of this fast-track system undertaken by the Department of Justice over the last year.