Denmark announced today that it expects to be ready by the end of 2027 to send migrants without regulated residency status to a return reception center located outside the European Union (EU).
Minister for Immigration and Integration Morten Bodskov will meet today in Copenhagen with colleagues from Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, and Greece to agree on concrete steps toward the bloc’s first partnership agreement with a non-EU country regarding arrangements for return centers, reports Reuters.
“We have come a long way in our work to establish a return center outside the EU and now we are closer than ever before!” Bodskov stated.
He noted that “this means that on the Danish side, we expect to be ready to send the first foreigners to the partner country by the end of next year”.
Currently, five other EU countries are preparing to finalize plans for such facilities.
The European Parliament in June approved a migration policy reform aimed at speeding up deportations and enabling member states to establish detention centers abroad, which, according to critics, could weaken protections for asylum seekers.
The Council of Europe assessed in July that return reception centers, as well as other arrangements for transferring foreign nationals to third countries, carry “significant risks to human rights,” including abuse and arbitrary deprivation of liberty.
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