Five EU countries set to announce Rwanda deportation hub deal

Five European Union countries are set to announce a deal on Monday to send rejected migrants to a deportation hub in Rwanda, three people familiar with the scheme have confirmed.

The five countries are Austria, Denmark, Germany, Greece and the Netherlands. They have been meeting regularly to lay the groundwork for a deal to set up centres outside EU territory to which they can deport migrants without a legal right to stay in the EU.

The deal is part of a broader push by the bloc to gain greater control over who enters the EU and who gets to stay. The anticipated deal is set to be announced in Vienna.

The deal would only apply to asylum seekers who have already run through all of their options for securing legal residence in the EU and were rejected.

The countries previously confirmed that they aim to close the first deals to set up the offshore centres, with plans to make them operational as of next year.

The deportation hub in Rwanda would function as a pilot project, and deals with other countries and involving other EU countries are likely to follow.

A recent reform of EU rules made it possible for EU members to cut deals to set up such deportation hubs with other countries, on the condition that they meet international human rights standards.

Specifics of the scheme, including the nationalities of the people who would be moved to the hubs, their living conditions there and oversight of the deal, all depend on the agreement each country cuts.

But human rights groups have warned that the hubs risk opening the door to human rights abuses, far removed from EU oversight or recourse.

Plans by the Conservative British government to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda were struck down by the UK Supreme Court in 2023, which ruled the scheme unlawful. After coming to power in 2024, the Labour government shelved the plans, with then Prime Minister Keir Starmer calling the Rwanda plan 'dead and buried.'

The UK had aimed to move people to Rwanda to process their applications remotely, whereas the EU countries' incoming deal would target people who have been ordered to leave the bloc's territory.