But NGOs say that these hubs risk becoming lawless offshore detention centers. The lack of detail on where the hubs will be placed and who will monitor them “risks leaving the door open to abuses of power, human rights violations, and even more disorder at Europe’s borders,” said Imogen Sudbery, executive director of the NGO International Rescue Committee Belgium.
The planned reforms have divided the European Parliament, with the center-right European People’s Party (EPP) securing the Parliament’s negotiating position ahead of the talks with the support of right-wing groups rather than its traditional centrist partners. There was further outrage when it was reported that right-wing groups had coordinated their stance in a WhatsApp group.
That has made the migration plan a lightning rod for fury about the EPP’s willingness to forge majorities with parties on the right, which have long been kept out of European decision-making.
French Green MEP Mélissa Camara called on the Cypriot presidency of the Council, which is leading the talks, “to come to its senses and not make the historic and unforgivable mistake of concluding a shameful agreement with the far-right political groups in the European Parliament.”
But proponents of the plans argue that a functional migration system requires that people without the right to stay in the bloc be removed.
“We remain committed to delivering a robust, security-oriented and operational Return Regulation that addresses Europe’s low return rate,” said the negotiator for the right-wing European Conservatives and Reformists group, Sweden’s Charlie Weimers.