In shift to the right, von der Leyen endorses 'return hubs' for rejected asylum seekers

The European Commission has signalled a willingness to offshore migration procedures, echoing growing calls from member states.

Transcript

00:00President of the European Commission has endorsed return hubs outside of the European Union

00:06for rejected asylum seekers.

00:08Ursula von der Leyen sent a seven-page letter to EU leaders on Monday outlining several

00:14proposals to curb the number of asylum applications, including the controversial return hubs.

00:20The letter is very clear on what are considered the priority areas for action, but now of

00:25course it is for the leaders to discuss the way forward based on the letter that the President

00:32has sent.

00:33In the letter von der Leyen said the EU will be able to learn lessons from the criticized

00:39Italy-Albania asylum processing deal.

00:43She previously described the offshore processing as out-of-the-box thinking, but humanitarian

00:49organizations fear it may set a dangerous precedent.

01:11In the letter von der Leyen also pushed for designating safe third countries at an EU

01:16level.

01:18This would speed up deportations and avoid disagreements between member states.

01:25It comes ahead of a two-day summit in Brussels where migration is set to dominate talks.