Fifteen Member States ask to create centers outside the EU for migrants rescued at sea

He European Pact on Migration and Asylum was definitively approved last Tuesday -with the vote against Hungary and Poland– after three and a half years of intense debates. But a large number of EU countries consider it insufficient and are already demanding “new ways and solutions” to deal with the “strong increase in irregular arrivals.”

A total of 15 Member States (including Italy, Greece, Malta, the Netherlands and Denmark) have written a letter to the European Commission in which, among other measures, they propose creating Non-EU holding centers for migrants rescued on the high seas. It would be about replicating at European level the agreement closed by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni with Albania.

A pact that was harshly criticized by community organizations, but that has received the endorsement of the Commission of Ursula von der Leyen. Brussels maintains that this agreement reached between Rome and Tirana to outsource the processing of asylum applications does not violate community law because it falls outside its scope of application.

[Túnez, Mauritania, Egipto y ahora Líbano: la UE avanza en externalizar el control migratorio]

The agreement reached between Italy and Albania to outsource the processing of asylum applications does not infringe EU law because it falls “outside” its scope.

In particularly convoluted language, the 15 Member States ask the Commission in their letter for “security agreements and transit mechanisms” based on “models such as the Italy-Albania protocol.” The objective would be to “detect, intercept or, in case of danger, rescue migrants on the high seas and take them to a predetermined and safe location in a partner country outside the EUwhere lasting solutions can be found for these migrants.

In order to accelerate the expulsions of migrants who do not have the right to asylum, these countries are also committed to creating “return centers” in partner countries outside the EU. Irregular migrants would be transferred there while waiting for their countries of origin to accept their readmission.

The letter is signed by Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Greece, Italy, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, the Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Romania and Finland. Spain is the only frontline country on the EU’s maritime border that does not sign the letter, which also does not have the support of France or Germany.

The signatories also insist that the EU must strengthen its collaboration with the countries of origin and transit, with agreements such as those that have already been signed with Türkiye or Tunisia to outsource immigration control. “These agreements are essential not only to manage irregular migration movements towards Europe, but also to offer migrants an alternative to putting their lives at risk on dangerous journeys,” the letter says.

The 15 countries assure that all these new measures must applied in full compliance with international lawincluding the principle of non-refoulement and the European Charter of Human Rights.

“The current challenges related to the EU asylum and migration system, including the sharp increase in irregular arrivals, are unsustainable. Our core responsibility and commitment is to defend stability and social cohesion and avoid the risk of polarization in European societies and the loss of unity in the family of the EU Member States,” the signatories point out.