The European Union has formally adopted a new Return Regulation that allows member states to transfer migrants subject to return decisions to facilities outside the bloc. The Council gave final approval on 1 October 2026, completing a legislative process that significantly expands the toolkit available to governments removing people with no legal right to remain.

The regulation enters into force the day after its publication in the EU's Official Journal. Provisions covering return hubs apply immediately; measures requiring administrative preparations take effect one year later.

What the new framework changes

The regulation introduces a common European framework for returns built around three main elements:

• A European Return Order. A member state issuing a return decision enters essential information on a standard European form. Other member states can then recognise the decision if the person moves elsewhere within the Union. Automatic recognition is not compulsory at first — governments may recognise another country's decision voluntarily, with the arrangement due for review three years after entry into force. The Commission may then propose making mutual recognition mandatory.
• Obligations on people ordered to leave. Individuals face an EU-wide duty to cooperate with national authorities. Failure to cooperate can bring reduced benefits or allowances, withdrawal of incentives for voluntary departure, financial penalties and, where national law permits, criminal sanctions.
• Special provisions for security risks. Governments may impose indefinite entry bans where justified and proportionate, and may detain individuals regarded as security risks for periods exceeding 24 months.

The return hub mechanism

The regulation creates an explicit legal basis for member states to send people with return decisions to facilities established in non-EU countries. Two limits apply. Arrangements can only be concluded with countries considered to respect international human rights standards and international law, including the principle of non-refoulement, which prohibits returning people to places where they face persecution or serious harm. Unaccompanied minors are excluded from transfers to return hubs.

The regulation cannot compel a third country to host a centre. An agreement covering legal safeguards and facility operations must be negotiated first.

Who is moving ahead

Five governments — Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Austria and Greece — began actively seeking third countries willing to host return centres in September 2026. By the end of that month, the same group was preparing a pilot system intended to begin transferring rejected asylum seekers outside the EU during 2027. Greece has separately moved to create national legislation supporting transfers to centres outside the EU.

Why the EU acted

The European Commission has described the existing returns system as one of the weakest parts of EU migration policy. When negotiators reached agreement on the legislation in June, the Commission noted the effective return rate had risen to 28 per cent in 2025 but remained too low. The Council frames the problem more starkly: around two in every three people ordered to leave the EU do not actually leave.

The European Parliament approved the framework in June, after Council and parliamentary negotiators reached a provisional agreement earlier that month.

Context: the Migration and Asylum Pact

The Return Regulation complements the wider EU Pact on Migration and Asylum, which entered application on 12 June 2026. That system introduced new arrangements for border screening, asylum procedures, biometric registration and responsibility-sharing between member states. Return hubs have nonetheless become one of the most politically significant elements of the broader policy.

The Council's decision now gives national initiatives a common European legal framework. Whether return hubs become a significant part of EU migration policy will depend on negotiating agreements with countries prepared to host them — the most difficult diplomatic question, which the regulation itself leaves unresolved.

Readers affected by a return decision should consult the official text published in the EU's Official Journal and the Council's press release of 1 October 2026 for authoritative details.