Germany pushes for African ‘return hub’ for migrants, Greece says

Germany is driving efforts to set up an Italy–Albania-style “return hub” in Africa with the participation of several EU countries, Greece’s Migration Minister Konstantinos Plevris said on Thursday.

Speaking to public broadcaster ERT, Plevris added there had been “progress” with Berlin to create “a point from which we will return irregular migrants from outside the EU back to Africa”, effectively a facility in a third country for rejected asylum seekers.

The minister also added that discussions are underway with what he described as “safe African countries” for migrants who “cannot be returned to their home countries”.

His comments come as the Commission proposed in March tightening the EU’s deportation machinery by creating a unified system and paving the way for the set-up of “return hubs” in third countries.

The proposal is currently under discussion by the European Parliament and the Council, with EU capitals aiming to lock in a general approach on the file by December.

Plevris stressed that the Germany-led project would sit outside the EU framework, as a cooperation between willing member states.

He cast it as a copy of Italy’s arrangement with Albania in 2023, under which the two countries agreed to process asylum claims offshore to accelerate returns.

“Exactly what Italy is trying to do with Albania, we want to do on the African continent,” Plevris said.

Albania, he argued, “is not entirely deterrent” because those transferred there “know that afterward they could return to Europe”. Moving people outside Europe, he added, is “completely deterrent”. “Imagine an Egyptian setting out to come to Europe, and you send him to Uganda.”

Italy’s plan, however, ran into legal challenges, prompting Rome to recast the facilities as repatriation centres by March 2025.

Such conversion “complies with EU law,” the Commission said in March. “Italian national law would apply in these centres,” it added.

Nicoletta Ionta contributed to reporting.

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