Greek EU presidency eyes migrant return hub in Africa: Minister

Greece said Monday it aimed to set up a hub in Africa for sending back migrants once it takes up the EU presidency in 2027.

"We believe that the framework is opening up under the Greek presidency for the return centre to operate," Greece's migration minister Thanos Plevris told ANT1 TV.

He added that the hub would run "in an African country that we have already agreed on; we simply cannot name it yet."

Greece will hold the rotating presidency of the European Union in the second half of 2027.

Uganda and Rwanda have been cited as possible sites, with EU states Denmark, Austria, Germany and the Netherlands working with Greece on the initiative.

Plevris said a meeting will soon be organised with the other four EU states and the director of the International Organisation for Migration to discuss the plan.

The European Parliament in June approved a regulation on the return of migrants whose asylum claims have been rejected, including the possibility for member states to conclude agreements to establish detention centres outside the union's borders.

This regulation, intended to speed up expulsions, has raised concerns among human rights advocates.

The Council of Europe, the continent's human rights watchdog, has sent letters to the commissioners responsible for migration policy in these five countries, submitting recommendations to them to address potential human rights violations.

Plevris also said that Greece wants to present at the next European Council on Home Affairs on 1 October "a mechanism of exceptional measures" in the event of an influx crisis such as the recent events in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, where 72,000 migrants crossed the border from Morocco.

"In times of crisis, measures outside the box must be taken," he said.

"In these cases where we have instrumentalisation (of migration), and we have experienced it with mass flows that we have prevented, then not only should asylum not even be considered, there should be an immediate issuance of a return decision and immediate return," Plevris said.

Greece has twice suspended the registration of asylum applications: in March 2020 during a crisis at the Greek-Turkish border, and in July 2025 during a large influx to Crete of migrants coming from Libya.