The European Council on October 18, 2024 asked the European Commission to study migrant processing centres outside the European Union for people whose asylum claims are rejected, according to summit conclusions reported by InfoMigrants.

The deal, agreed by EU heads of state and government at the autumn Brussels summit, formalises language on so-called "return hubs" that Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni had pressed for since taking office in October 2022.

What did leaders actually sign off on?

The October conclusions did not establish a centre or approve a partner country. They directed the Commission to draw up a feasibility study covering candidate host states, costs, the legal basis for transfers and the safeguards needed.

The mandate includes reporting back to EU leaders before the European Council meeting in spring 2025, with a view to pilot projects drawing on the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund.

In the published conclusions, EU leaders invited the Commission and the incoming Presidency of the Council of the EU to prepare pilot projects on return hubs.

How does this differ from the UK-Rwanda plan?

The UK-Rwanda Migration and Economic Development Partnership, signed in April 2022 and brought into force under the Illegal Migration Act 2023, would have sent asylum seekers to a single third country for processing and resettlement. The Labour government of Keir Starmer scrapped the scheme on July 6, 2024, four days after entering office.

The EU hub concept is multilateral, with several member states sharing costs and a Commission-led negotiation. Legal scholars say the EU version faces overlapping questions under EU law, the European Convention on Human Rights and the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.

Who would be sent to a hub?

In principle, any adult or family whose asylum claim is finally rejected in a participating member state, and any non-asylum migrant who cannot be returned directly because their country of origin will not issue documents, could be channelled through a hub.

Real transfer numbers will depend on:

• a willing host state with adequate reception conditions
• a bilateral or multilateral readmission agreement
• guaranteed legal aid and effective appeal rights

Italy has already moved first on a related model. Rome and Tirana signed a protocol in November 2023 to operate two centres on Albanian soil. The first transfers in October 2024 moved 7 men to Albania; an Albanian court later ruled them ineligible for Italian asylum protection, requiring them to be returned to Italy for processing. Further transfers have moved in both directions under the same protocol.

What changes for caseworkers now?

Until the Commission publishes its study and member states agree funding, the October conclusions change little operationally.

National asylum officers still apply Directive 2011/95/EU on standards for qualifying as a refugee. Dublin transfers continue. Detention rules under Directive 2008/115/EC remain the default instrument for removal.

The first concrete change will likely be budgetary. The Commission has indicated parts of the 2021-2027 AMIF could be earmarked for hub pilot projects.