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