"Today, the European Commission introduced a proposed revision to the 2008 Return Directive, amending the EU legal framework on returns or deportations outside of the EU. Following pressure from certain member states, it also introduces a possible legal basis for ‘return hubs’ in EU law through “agreements or arrangements” with third countries.

“The European Commission has caved to the unworkable, expensive and inhumane demands of a few shrill anti-human rights and anti-migration governments. The Commission itself discarded the concept of ‘return hubs’ in 2018. It is well aware that these proposals will lead to human rights violations, waste millions of euros and alienate allies – at a time when the EU needs friends.

Despite this, today’s proposal lays the ground for states to send people to countries to which they have no connection, to languish in detention centres, with little credible guarantees that their rights will be upheld. Frankly, this is a new low for Europe,” said Eve Geddie, Director of Amnesty International’s European Institutions Office."