EU interior ministers agreed on stricter rules for returning migrants at a meeting in Luxembourg on October 1. The package includes a European Return Order, which could let one country recognise another’s decision to remove someone who has no right to stay. It also permits return hubs outside the EU and longer detention for people considered security risks.
The Return Order
Under the agreed rules, people without the right to stay must leave and cooperate with authorities. Those who don’t cooperate could face reduced benefits, fines or criminal charges. The measures shift the bloc’s migration-policy focus from paperwork to enforcement, according to the account of the ministers’ decision.
Countries could choose whether to recognise each other’s return decisions under the European Return Order. The framework is due for review after three years. That means national authorities would have an option; the agreement wouldn’t require every country to recognise another country’s decision.
The rules are due to take effect in the coming weeks. They exclude unaccompanied minors. The base agreement gives no further details about how authorities will apply the rules in individual cases.
Detention and Return Hubs
For people assessed as security risks, countries could impose indefinite entry bans and detention lasting longer than 24 months. The agreement also allows countries to establish return hubs outside the EU. It doesn’t say how many hubs could be created or which countries would host them.
Greece’s migration minister, Thanos Plevris, said the first return hub could open in the second half of 2027. He named no host country, saying only that it would be in an unspecified African country. The agreement permits a hub beyond EU territory, but officials haven’t confirmed the proposed first site.
The UN human rights office warned that the law lacks clear rules for monitoring, appeals or conditions in host countries. Its warning focuses on safeguards around hubs and returns beyond the EU. The agreement described in the account offers no further detail on those points.
Orders and Actual Returns
The ministers’ decision follows a meeting in Munich on 26 September, where Migration Commissioner Magnus Brunner said irregular arrivals had dropped by 55% over two years. That figure concerns arrivals; it doesn’t measure how many people facing return orders left the EU.
In 2025, the EU ordered nearly 492,000 people to leave, but only 135,000 did. The figures show the gap between the number ordered to depart and the number actually returned. The new rules address enforcement through possible sanctions for non-cooperation, recognition of return decisions between countries, and return hubs outside the bloc.
The agreement lets countries choose whether to recognise one another’s orders, allows longer detention in security-risk cases and excludes unaccompanied minors. The framework is due to take effect in the coming weeks and face a planned review after three years.