Netherlands considers plan to send rejected asylum seekers to Uganda

Government could use African country as temporary ‘return hub’ for migrants refused refugee status before deporting to country of origin

The Netherlands wants to sign an offshore migrant processing deal with Uganda to host its rejected asylum seekers before they are deported to their home countries.
“We are open to any discussions,” Jeje Odongo, Uganda’s Foreign Affairs Minister, told the Dutch broadcaster NOS.
The plan, which is similar to the UK’s abandoned Rwanda scheme for asylum seekers, emerged as European Union leaders met in Brussels on Thursday for a European Council summit.
The gathering was set to be dominated by talks over migration and how to speed up the return of failed asylum seekers.
Amongst the ideas to be discussed are “return hubs” – camps set up outside of the EU for rejected asylum seekers awaiting deportation.
A total of 484,000 non-EU citizens were ordered to leave the bloc last year, of whom only about 91,500, less than 20 per cent,  were effectively returned, according to the Eurostat agency.
Arriving at the summit, Olaf Scholz, Germany’s Chancellor, cast doubt on the EU plans for the offshore centres but they have support from more than half of the bloc’s 27 member states.
Diplomatic sources had suggested that Brussels could eventually ask western Balkan countries, hoping to join the EU, to host the camps.
Albania, which has a bilateral offshore migrant centre deal with Italy, has ruled out any further similar deals, as has Moldova.
Dick Schoof, the Netherlands’ Prime Minister, said there was now a “different atmosphere” in Europe on migration issues and that the European Commission was now “looking favourably” on Italy’s offshore migrant centre deal with non-EU Albania.
Arriving at the summit, Mr Schoof told reporters the Netherlands was serious about pursuing its Uganda plan, which would involve paying the eastern African country to host the failed asylum seekers.
“I think these are innovative solutions that colleagues are basically interested in. They are, of course, ideas that fit with the idea that you bring asylum seekers who have exhausted all legal remedies back to the region and from the region, from the hub in the region, then let them return to their country of origin,” he said.
Earlier, on a trip to Uganda, Reinette Klever, the Dutch Minister of Foreign Trade and Development Aid, said: “We have a long relationship with Uganda and it is a hospitable country.
“Ultimately, we want to reduce migration. For the government, it is important that rejected asylum seekers return to their country of origin. And that is where it sometimes stalls.” 
Speaking to Italian media, Caspar Veldkamp the Dutch Foreign Minister, said: “Everywhere in Europe governments are taking a more hardline position because voters are calling for it.”
He added: “Italy has done all this within the framework of European law and within the human rights convention. We need to innovate and think outside the box.”
Giorgia Meloni, the Prime Minister of Italy, held talks on the sidelines of the summit, co-hosted by the Netherlands and Denmark, to drum up support for “innovative solutions” such as the hubs.
She has hailed her Albania deal as a model for Europe, while Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, has said “lessons” can be drawn from it.
Mrs von der Leyen attended the sidelines talks, which also involved the leaders of Austria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Slovakia, and Malta.
“We cannot accept the fact that we are not effective to deal with those who are not entitled to protection status in the European Union,” said Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the Prime Minister of Greece.
“Exporting such centres to third countries is a good example which we will support,” said Dimitar Glavchev, the Bulgarian caretaker Prime Minister, as he praised Italy’s Albania deal.
“No one thinks that people flee for fun, and we have a lot of wars and conflicts. But we cannot continue to bring so many people into Europe,” said Mette Frederiksen, the Prime Minister of Denmark. “I am really, really pleased that there are now beginning to be other governments in Europe who, like us, can see that we cannot just keep going.”
But, in a sign of enduring EU divisions over migration policy, Mr Scholz said the deportation hubs “are not really the solution for a country as large as Germany,”
Detention centres had to be in accordance with European law, the Chancellor warned, after saying they would only be able to absorb a “few small drops” of the 300,000 asylum seekers arriving illegally in Germany last year.
Spain opposes the idea of return hubs, as does Belgium. Alexander de Croo, Belgium’s Prime Minister, said they had “never worked”.
“History has shown that these solutions don’t bring much in the way of results,” he told reporters, before a leaders’ summit that is not expected to bring much in concrete decisions on migration.
Offshore hubs were rejected by Brussels in 2018 as neither “feasible” or “desirable” because of legal and ethical concerns.
But a string of Right-wing victories in elections across Europe has hardened attitudes.
The Dutch elections last year were won by Geert Wilders, the veteran firebrand, who campaigned on reducing asylum seeker numbers to zero and banning the Koran.
Mr Wilders is not part of the Dutch government as a condition of the coalition negotiations but remains influential.
As he is not a prime minister or head of state, he was not at the summit but he met separately with other hard-Right leaders in Brussels, including Marine Le Pen of the National Rally in France and Viktor Orban, the Prime Minister of Hungary, before it.
Mr Orban said: “The people of Europe have had enough of illegal migration, failed economic policies and the bureaucrats in Brussels. We will make sure that their voices are heard.”
Donald Tusk, Poland’s Prime Minister, who has called for the suspension of the right to asylum in Poland to counter migrants being funnelled across the border with Putin-allied Belarus, was also at the Meloni-hosted talks.
He is seeking European backing for his ban, which could break international law, and has support from Finland, where its neighbour, Russia, has also weaponised migration.
Mr Tusk claimed a victory of sorts. He said other leaders understood his ban was not a wholesale suspension of asylum rights but would only temporarily apply to migrants being forced across the border with Belarus.
“Frankly speaking, it went easier than I expected,” he said, “It was important to me that there should be no negative decisions against our ideas here and there certainly won’t be.”
The EU agreed in May on a new set of rules and processes for handling migration, called the Migration Pact, but its full implementation is not due until mid-2026.
Many member states, including Germany, want to speed up the implementation of the deal that allows for faster asylum processes and returns.
The agreement is still opposed by Poland and Hungary, which have said they will not agree to take in refugees relocated from under-pressure countries such as Italy and Greece.