Return policy has been at the forefront of the EU’s recent migration policy, with significantly stricter rhetoric during the current legislative term.
On 11 March 2025, the EU Commission proposed a new regulation on returns. It included conditions for the establishment of return hubs outside the Union, a measure that 15 member states had already advocated in a public letter sent to the previous Commission in May 2024.
A comparable return centre has already been established in Europe: in April 2025, Italy started transferring returnees from Italy to a centre it operates in Albania. Initially, the centre was intended for the transfer of asylum seekers rescued from the Mediterranean Sea by the Italian authorities.
The Commission’s proposal and the EU’s external return policy seem to have abandoned even the few previous cooperation incentives, focusing instead on conditionality and deterrence, which appear counterproductive in promoting readmission and cooperation with key countries of origin and transit.
The proposal contributes to legitimising ‘innovative’ migration solutions by member states, to be followed by the forthcoming revision of the safe country concepts, which would need to be amended for the much-discussed transfer of asylum seekers to third countries with which they have no connection.
