September meeting aims to seal five EU-country deal on Uganda migrant return hub – EUobserver

Five EU countries are pressing ahead with talks with Uganda to open a refugee return centre for the EU’s failed asylum seekers, but without the involvement of the EU Commission, a spokesman for the EU executive confirmed on Thursday (13 August).

“We are not involved in the discussions on the hubs,” Guillaume Mercier told reporters in Brussels, amid reports that talks with Uganda are at an advanced stage as part of an initiative led by Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Denmark and Greece.

Though the EU’s returns regulation allows the bloc to negotiate the creation of so-called ‘return hubs’ outside the EU, not all EU countries support return hubs, with France and Spain the main opponents.

In the case of Uganda, the five countries are negotiating bilaterally with officials in Kampala. And the five countries’ migration ministers are set to meet in Copenhagen on 4 September to review progress in the negotiations. 

The proposal under discussion appears to be similar in scope to a Memorandum of Understanding signed last year between Kampala and the Dutch government. 

Officials have indicated that the plan is to set up a centre that would accommodate up to 10,000 migrants whose asylum applications had already been rejected in EU countries. 

They hope that many migrants would choose to return voluntarily to their countries of origin rather than remain in Uganda.