Von der Leyen promises more deportations as EU veers right on migration

BRUSSELS — Ursula von der Leyen will propose tougher laws and more plans to deport rejected asylum seekers, doubling down on the European Union’s new embrace of harsher migration policies as anti-immigrant parties gain popularity across the Continent. 

More than half of EU member countries, including France and Germany, asked the EU to toughen up its deportations policy ahead of 27 EU leaders meeting Thursday — and now the head of the EU’s powerful chief executive is putting her rubber stamp on deportations. 

Von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, said in a press conference that leaders had discussed setting up deportation centers outside the EU’s borders, referring to them as “return hubs.” 

The ideas to increase methods for deportations from the EU come as the actual number of migrants crossing into the EU are decreasing. In 2023 fewer than 300,000 people made it to the Continent; this year the EU’s border agency, Frontex, estimates about 160,000 migrants have reached Europe. In contrast, in 2015 at the height of Europe’s so-called migration crisis, more than one million people crossed the EU’s borders. 

“Today, we see that from all those that have no right to stay in the European Union, only 20 percent of those who have a return decision are really returned to their countries of origin,” she said.

“The idea… is not trivial but it has been discussed,” she said, referring to the “return hubs.” It received enthusiastic backing from Greece’s center-right Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk also got backing on his proposed asylum ban for those coming from Russia and Belarus, after claiming earlier this week Moscow was shipping migrants to Europe’s border to destabilize Poland. | Sergei Gapon/AFP via Getty Images

To expand its deportations, the EU could also revise what it considers a legally “safe” country. 

Austria’s Chancellor Karl Nehammer said Syria — still ruled by dictator Bashar Assad — and Afghanistan, ruled by the Taliban, should be considered safe countries. Italy is spearheading a push to send refugees back to Syria, which has had no formal diplomatic ties with the EU since the start of its bloody civil war in 2011.

At the same meeting, von der Leyen put the EU stamp on other proposals to keep migrants out. 

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk also got backing on his proposed asylum ban for those coming from Russia and Belarus, after claiming earlier this week Moscow was shipping migrants to Europe’s border to destabilize Poland. 

Leaders wholeheartedly endorsed the proposed ban.

“Russia and Belarus, or any other country, cannot be allowed to abuse our values,” the agreement signed by all leaders on Thursday. “Exceptional situations require appropriate measures.”

It’s a stark departure from the ringing endorsement of immigration Tusk gave to the world after Donald Trump, who campaigned on an anti-immigrant platform in the U.S. elections, won in 2016.  The then-European Council president said: “It is good to remember the strength of the Western community. Italians, Irish, Poles, Germans, Spanish — every EU nation has helped build America.”

A rare dissenting voice came from Spain’s Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, who has cast migration as a boon for his economy. 

Asked about so-called return hubs at a press conference, he said: “We are not in favor of these kinds of formulations, they don’t solve any problems and create other ones.”

Along with Germany, Sánchez wanted more emphasis put on the bloc’s landmark migration and asylum deal — which was clinched last December.