EU countries can take an important step towards reception centres outside the EU

When the Social Democrats proposed in 2018 to establish a Danish reception center for asylum seekers abroad, it immediately triggered massive criticism. Also in Brussels.

But now there are signs that the idea may become broadly accepted in the EU.

On Monday, Minister for Immigration and Integration Rasmus Stoklund (S) will chair the final and decisive ministerial meeting in his area under the Danish EU presidency.

The meeting may end with an agreement between the EU countries to establish the legal basis for reception centers outside the EU.

– There is reason to be cautiously optimistic, because more and more EU countries are now expressing that they are thinking along the same lines and are interested in establishing reception centers outside Europe, says Rasmus Stoklund.

The idea behind the reception centers is that asylum processing should in future take place outside the EU.

The aim is to curb the influx to Europe and ensure that people who are refused asylum do not simply remain in Europe without a legal basis for residence – as often happens today.

The EU’s asylum rules already allow member states to refuse to process an asylum application if the applicant can be referred to a safe third country where they have the opportunity to apply for asylum.

In principle, this could open the door to reception centers in third countries.

However, the EU rules set out a number of conditions for the connection between the asylum seeker and the third country, which in practice make it difficult to transfer asylum seekers for asylum processing outside Europe.

It was therefore Denmark’s opt-out on justice and home affairs that gave the then single-party government of the Social Democrats the opportunity to move forward with the idea.

Rasmus Stoklund hopes that on Monday the EU countries will succeed in agreeing to ease the EU rules so that the EU as a whole or a number of EU countries can join forces to transfer spontaneous asylum seekers from the EU to reception centers outside Europe.

– There has been a legal obstacle in the EU rules, which we on the Danish side have taken the lead in solving. It will be a very big step if it succeeds, says Rasmus Stoklund.

From there, however, there is still a long way to go before the reception centers can become reality.

If agreement is reached among the EU countries, the rules must be negotiated with the European Parliament before they become binding legislation.

The European Parliament has typically been more skeptical about tightening asylum rules than the EU countries.

After last year’s election to the European Parliament, Ursula von der Leyen’s conservative EPP group has, however, gained a new opportunity to assemble a majority to the right, bypassing the centrist coalition that brought von der Leyen to power.

If the legal basis is put in place, the next step is to find one or more countries outside the EU that are both willing to receive asylum seekers and able to safeguard their human rights.

A task that experts have repeatedly pointed out is very difficult.

– In that kind of cooperation, you sometimes have to arm yourself with a little patience.

– It is, however, my conviction that the courts will not be able to stop it. Because the EU countries are obliged to offer people protection, but it does not have to be, for example, in Denmark.

– Therefore, we can create a cooperation on reception centers and at the same time live up to our international obligations, says Rasmus Stoklund.