EU approves return hubs without a host

On 1 October, EU ministers gave final approval to a regulation that lets governments send people with no right to stay in the bloc to "return hubs" in non-EU countries (Council, EFE). The hub rules apply from the day the law takes effect. The governments pushing hardest for hubs have still published no agreement with a country willing to host one.

That gap matters because the law grants permission and nothing more. Turning that permission into an actual departure depends on others: national governments, a host country, the courts and, finally, the person's own country of origin.

Who decides what

The chain starts in a national capital. A country's authorities decide that someone must leave. Under the new European Return Order, they then record the essentials in a common form that other member states can read. Whether a second country acts on that decision remains its own choice (Brussels Times).

Spain objected to exactly that discretion. Madrid wanted every Schengen country bound to enforce the others' decisions. Schengen is the area where people cross most EU borders without passport checks, so in Spain's view someone could escape removal simply by moving. Spain also judged the hub safeguards for families too weak, and it was the only government to vote against (elDiario.es). It could not block the law, which passed by qualified majority, a weighted vote in which no single country holds a veto.

Hubs sit further down the chain. Only people who already have a return decision can be sent there. The host country must respect international human-rights law, including the ban on sending anyone on to persecution or torture. Unaccompanied children are excluded, but families with children are not excluded in the same categorical way (ECRE). Courts can test whether each transfer meets those conditions.

The law takes effect the day after it appears in the Official Journal, the EU publication that makes legislation official. The hub provisions apply from that day. Most of the other new procedures start a year later (Council).

The missing host

Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Austria and Greece agreed a shared hub model in September and aim for first transfers in 2027 (Danish ministry). Since then the five have been negotiating with possible host countries as a group (To Brief).

On adoption day, German interior minister Alexander Dobrindt said the willingness of prospective hosts still had to be worked through. He said he hoped for an agreement by the end of the year (Tagesschau). Denmark's immigration minister, Morten Bødskov, claimed the legal basis was now in place (The Copenhagen Post). The legal basis covers only the EU side. The five governments still need a host, and none has published a signed agreement.

Why a host is not enough

Even a signed deal clears only one hurdle. Researchers at SWP, a German policy institute, point out that a host's consent does not force a person's home country to issue travel documents or take them back (SWP). The host agrees to receive people. Only the country of origin can accept them home.

That second hurdle is the one Europe already struggles with. In 2025, EU countries ordered 491,950 people to leave and returned 135,460 to non-EU countries (Eurostat). The two totals do not track the same individuals, so the gap cannot measure what hubs might add. It does show that ordering departures has long been easier than carrying them out.

The plausible risk follows from SWP's point. If a home country refuses documents, a hub may end up holding people rather than sending them on, moving a stalled case outside the EU without resolving it. Whether that happens depends on agreements with countries of origin, which the new law does not create.

The five governments promising transfers therefore owe two things: a published host agreement that can withstand court review, and a way to secure documents from the countries people actually come from. The law permits hubs, but their backers have published no host agreement. Their transfer timetable remains an ambition.