Denmark and four EU countries agree on migrant ‘return hubs’ outside the bloc, aim to start by 2027

Denmark and four other European Union countries agreed Friday on a model for “return hubs” in non-EU nations and hope to begin sending migrants to the facilities as early as 2027, an official said Friday.

The announcement, made after a one-day meeting in Copenhagen, is the latest development in an effort by EU states to send people whose asylum requests have been rejected to third countries outside the bloc.

“We are moving forward toward what is actually a fundamental transformation of the common European migration and asylum system,” said Morten Bødskov, Denmark’s minister of immigration and integration.

He briefed reporters alongside counterparts from Germany, the Netherlands, Austria and Greece. The five countries have been negotiating with governments mainly in Africa over potential sites, pioneering the initiative for the whole of the EU.

Human rights groups have criticized plans to deport migrants to centers or prisons in third countries, arguing that European nations cannot guarantee their rights will be respected there.

Bødskov rejected the idea that “return hubs” were a euphemism for detention and deportation centers and said the International Organization for Migration and the U.N. Refugee Agency would m...