Five EU Countries Pursue Overseas Return Hubs for Rejected Migrants

Five European Union countries agreed in Copenhagen on September 4 to pursue a shared model for “return hubs” outside the bloc, moving the idea into formal preparatory talks. The governments have not selected a host country, approved an operating facility or settled how the system would work in practice.

Denmark, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands and Greece said they would begin dialogue with possible partner countries, send missions to assess standards and feasibility, and coordinate the national legal steps needed before any hub could become operational.

What changed on September 4

The Danish government said the five-country group adopted three guiding principles. The proposed model should reduce irregular migration and incentives for people-smuggling; comply with EU and international law, including human-rights obligations; and be built through an equal, mutually beneficial partnership with a non-EU country.

Those principles are a framework, not an operating agreement. The immediate change is diplomatic and administrative: officials can now pursue partner-country negotiations, assess potential locations and align national legal work.

What a return hub would do

Under the EU return rules agreed provisionally in June and the model described by the participating governments, a hub outside the EU could serve as a final destination for people who have no legal right to remain, or as a transfer point for onward return to a country of origin or another third country.

The proposal therefore concerns people whose asylum applications have been rejected or who otherwise lack legal status to stay. It is not a new process for deciding every asylum claim, and the Copenhagen initiative does not establish that anyone will be transferred automatically.

Participating officials have said they hope to reach an initial understanding with a partner country around the end of 2026 or early 2027 and potentially begin operations in 2027. Those are political targets, not completed decisions.

No host country has been named

The five governments did not identify a partner country after the Copenhagen meeting. Rwanda and Uganda have appeared in reporting as possible subjects of discussions, but neither has been selected or agreed as a host.

That unresolved question is central to the proposal. Any agreement would need to address who controls a facility, who pays for it, what conditions apply, how long people could remain there and how legal challenges, family contact and access to counsel would work.

Rights organizations have warned that transferring people to facilities outside the EU could make accountability and enforcement of protections more difficult. Participating governments say the model must comply with European and international law, but the practical safeguards have not yet been set out in a final agreement.

How the plan fits EU law

The five-country initiative is separate from, but linked to, the EU’s broader migration reforms. The Pact on Migration and Asylum entered application on June 12, 2026, establishing common procedures for screening, asylum processing and returns.

In June, the Council of the EU and the European Parliament reached a provisional agreement on return rules that would allow member states to establish return hubs in third countries for people with no right to stay. The Council said such arrangements would have to respect fundamental rights and international law, including non-refoulement, which bars sending people to a place where they face persecution or serious harm. Unaccompanied minors are excluded from the arrangements described in the Council’s agreement.

The EU agreement creates a legal possibility, subject to formal adoption and the stated safeguards; it does not create a ready-made facility or require all EU countries to participate. The September meeting was a smaller political initiative by five governments seeking to develop an implementation model.

Monitoring remains unresolved

Danish officials have suggested that the U.N. refugee agency and the International Organization for Migration could be involved. But the Associated Press reported that UNHCR had not been approached with details and could not comment on any possible role. IOM said no role had been decided and that discussions remained exploratory.

The next test will be whether the five governments can turn broad commitments into enforceable arrangements. Partner-country missions, technical negotiations and national legal processes will determine whether proposed hubs could operate while preserving access to legal remedies, humane conditions and protection against unlawful removal.

For now, the Copenhagen agreement marks a shared direction rather than a functioning system. Its significance will depend less on the phrase “return hubs” than on where any facility is located, who answers for what happens inside it and whether people transferred there retain meaningful rights.

Sources

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