EU countries eye setting up migrant ‘return hubs’ in Rwanda and Uzbekistan – POLITICO

BRUSSELS — A group of EU countries is considering sending rejected asylum seekers to Rwanda and Uzbekistan, three European diplomats confirmed, as the bloc moves to shift part of its migrant returns system beyond its borders for the first time.

The plans follow the approval of a law granting EU capitals the power to set up centers in non-EU countries for processing migrants who have been denied the right to stay in the bloc — so-called return hubs — provided those countries uphold human rights and international law. Over half of the EU’s 27 member countries called this month for swift action establishing the centers, in a letter seen by POLITICO.

Denmark, Austria, Greece, Germany and the Netherlands have spearheaded the push to process rejected asylum seekers offshore. “Our goal is to conclude the first agreements for the creation of these structures in 2026, so that they are operational from 2027,” Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said ahead of the law’s approval.