Migration: The EU authorizes "return centers" outside of Europe, with Rwanda as the leading candidate

On October 1, 2026, in Luxembourg, the European Union took a decisive step toward the externalization of its deportations: the interior ministers of the twenty-seven member states validated a "return" regulation that authorizes European capitals to set up centers in third countries where rejected asylum seekers would be held before their removal. According to AFP, Rwanda is presented as the best-positioned candidate to host the first of these facilities.

Five countries are leading the offensive: Denmark, Austria, Greece, Germany, and the Netherlands, which are aiming for the opening of a first center on the African continent as early as 2027, reports AFP. Dutch MEP Anna Strolenberg, of the Greens group, believes that the initial agreement will "very likely" be concluded with Kigali. European officials have also visited neighboring Uganda. No African government has, at this stage, been officially designated as a partner.

Spain stands alone against it

The vote was not unanimous. According to the newspaper The Olive Press, Spain was the only member state to oppose the text, with Belgium abstaining. Its Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, denounced the lack of legal guarantees and an "unacceptable risk" to human rights. MEPs Anna Strolenberg and Tineke Strik, also from the Greens group, criticized the mechanism.

The regulation is not limited to extraterritorial centers. Still according to The Olive Press, it expands police powers—searches of homes and workplaces, confiscation of passports—and allows for the detention of up to two years for those who refuse to leave the territory. It applies to any person in an irregular situation within the Union, including those whose residence permits have expired. The argument put forward by Brussels is the inefficiency of the current system: only a quarter of the removal orders issued in 2025 were executed.

Outsourcing that raises questions

For African countries, the stakes go beyond migration technique. Agreeing to host these centers means agreeing to manage on one's own soil people expelled by Europe, with legal guarantees that Madrid itself deems insufficient. The measure comes in a climate marked by the rise of anti-immigration parties in Europe, particularly in Germany, and following the arrival of migrants in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, according to AFP.

The next steps will play out in bilateral negotiations between European capitals and African governments. It is these discussions, and the counterparts attached to them, that will determine whether the continent agrees to become the place of detention for Europe's unwanted.