Listen: EU ministers discuss mutual deportations as new migration fix

European interior ministers met in Luxembourg this week, with the meeting continuing today to discuss how to better manage migration, or at least how to convince voters that they’re doing so. At the centre of the talks is a proposal that would make deportation orders issued by one EU country automatically recognised by all others. But how would that actually work, and could it be the fix for the EU’s migration system?

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You can find the transcript here if you prefer reading:

European interior ministers met in Luxembourg yesterday, with the meeting continuing today to discuss how to better manage migration, or at least how to convince voters that they’re doing so. At the centre of the talks is a proposal that would make deportation orders issued by one EU country automatically recognised by all others. But how would that actually work, and could it be the fix for the EU’s migration system?

So according to this proposal if Greece rejects an asylum claim and that person moves to Sweden, Sweden would have to deport them without opening a new case, nor a new review.

At the moment, this kind of mutual recognition is voluntary. And it’s not working. Only around one in five people ordered to leave the EU are actually deported. European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen has called that figure “far too low” and fixing it is one of her top political priorities.

Denmark, which currently holds the rotating EU presidency, has been pushing hard for a deal before the end of the year. But several governments, including Germany, France, and the Netherlands, raised concerns during the meeting about legal confusion, administrative overload, and differences in national procedures.

Critics warn that mandatory recognition could even encourage countries at the EU’s borders, like Italy and Greece, to reject asylum claims quickly, knowing someone else will be forced to enforce the deportation later.

The meeting also touched on the creation of so-called “return hubs” in non-EU countries, where people denied asylum could be sent while they await deportation, a plan that has already raised human rights concerns.

And once again, Poland made its position clear: no migrant relocations. Warsaw argues it has already faced what it calls “hybrid attacks” from Belarus, which has been accused of pushing migrants across the EU border to destabilise the bloc.

Now, all this is about who controls the narrative. Across Europe, populist and far-right parties have been gaining support by making migration a central issue. Centrist leaders, anxious not to lose ground, are adopting tougher language and stricter policies, often at the expense of their own previous values.

According to the Migration Policy Group, governments say they’re getting tough to keep the far right out of power, but by doing that, they’re letting the far right set the agenda.

And that’s what makes this so important. Europe’s migration debate has become a kind of political mirror: when leaders talk about efficiency, they often mean faster deportations; when they talk about solidarity, they usually mean financial contributions instead of shared responsibility.

The EU says it wants a system that’s fair and humane, but so far, it mostly looks like a system designed to pass the problem on.

What happens next?

The Danish presidency floated a compromise yesterday: giving member states up to three years before the mutual recognition rule becomes mandatory. That proposal will now move forward to the European Council, where leaders are expected to discuss it again in December.

Meanwhile, the European Commission is preparing to publish its “solidarity pool”, a mechanism meant to share asylum responsibilities across the bloc, whether through relocations, funding, or staffing. But with Italy, Greece, Poland, and Hungary all resisting parts of the deal, progress is likely to be slow.