The EU endorses the creation of migrant deportation camps like those in Meloni

BrusselsThe European Union has gone from harshly criticizing the far-right's migration policies to adopting them. Member states overwhelmingly agreed on Monday to endorse the opening of migrant deportation camps outside EU borders, like those Giorgia Meloni unsuccessfully established in Albania. Furthermore, migrants and asylum seekers will not only be held in these centers temporarily while their cases are assessed or they are sent to another country, but they could also be detained indefinitely.

The fact that migrants could be held in these camps sine die This is one of the points of the migration reform that Spain wanted to avoid. However, the Spanish government stood almost alone against the measure, and negotiations in the EU's Interior Council lasted only a few minutes, something unusual in such politically sensitive discussions. Nevertheless, the agreement at least commits, on paper, that member states can only agree with third countries to open migrant deportation camps if respect for human rights is guaranteed. Member states also agreed this Monday to the possibility of sending newly arrived migrants who are in the EU irregularly and asylum seekers to third countries with which they have no ties, either by origin or family. This is another of the most controversial measures in the proposal promoted by Ursula von der Leyen's European Commission. Some countries, such as Germany, have publicly expressed their doubts about the effectiveness of the initiative, fearing that it will be too expensive and logistically complicated to implement. However, one of the few governments that openly opposed it was Spain's, which once again found itself in the minority—along with Portugal and France, according to diplomatic sources at this newspaper—and watched as the majority of its European partners gave the green light to the reform.

The list of theoretically safe countries where EU partners have free rein to deport migrants and asylum seekers will not be determined by Brussels, but by the member states themselves. However, these third countries must meet a series of requirements: they must respect the principle of return to unsafe countries, guarantee that people are not at risk due to their sex, race, or religion, and ensure that they receive, among other things, education, healthcare, legal advice, and decent housing. It is important to remember, however, that the European Commission has already entered into agreements with regimes like those of Tunisia and Morocco to return migrants or to act as a barrier to migration routes. These regimes do not guarantee respect for human rights in the treatment of these people, as demonstrated by various journalistic reports and denounced by several non-profit organizations.

The list of countries that the European Union has determined is the "safe origin" list. The Brussels list includes all candidate states for EU accession – Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Turkey, and Ukraine – as well as Kosovo, Colombia, Bangladesh, Egypt, and India. This measure will allow member states to process asylum applications from people arriving from this list of supposedly safe countries through a fast-track process with fewer safeguards. The objective, according to diplomatic sources, is to expedite "applications that are likely unfounded," even at the expense of legal guarantees and the protection of newcomers. The intention behind these measures is to increase the number of deportations and accelerate procedures. According to data from the European Commission itself, member states only manage to deport about 25% of the migrants whose applications have been rejected because they often cannot be located or because their countries of origin refuse to accept them.

A European Union lacking solidarity

Despite European leaders repeatedly stating that the European Union must act in unison and face challenges together, when push comes to shove, and especially regarding migration, this motto often falls apart. This was evident in Monday's agreement on the so-called solidarity mechanism, which allocates the distribution of newly arrived migrants among member states. European partners have agreed that they are not obligated to take in migrants and asylum seekers from other states; and that the financial contribution to partners that, like Spain, are "under migratory pressure" will only have an annual budget of 420 million euros—down from the initial 600 million—and will affect a maximum of 21,000 new arrivals, 9,000 fewer than the initial figure under discussion. The distribution of migrants will not be mandatory under any circumstances, as many member states—especially those in the North and East, which geographically receive fewer migrants—were vehemently opposed. Thus, to contribute to the reception of immigrants and asylum seekers and prevent them from returning to their countries of origin, they have two alternatives: financial compensation or the provision of various resources. The amount each member state will contribute to the Solidarity Mechanism budget, which has been substantially reduced, has not yet been finalized, nor have the specific resources each European partner will allocate. Therefore, it is also unclear exactly what the countries designated by the European Commission as... They are "under migratory pressure"such as Spain, Cyprus, Greece, and Italy. In any case, it is certain that it will be much less than what these countries requested and what was initially projected.