Nordic countries concerned about high levels of migration could join together to set up deportation sites outside the European Union, Danish immigration minister Kaare Dybvad has said.
Mr Dybvad said Asylum seekers whose claims for protection were rejected would be sent to the sites.
EU governments are debating the controversial idea of sending people whose asylum claims have been rejected to “return hubs” outside the bloc’s borders, until they can be repatriated.
The proposal to create deportation hubs, part of an increasingly rightward shift in EU migration policy, has been fiercely criticised by Amnesty International and other humanitarian organisations.
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Mr Dybvad said he was hopeful EU states would back the idea. However, a coalition of capitals could move forward on their own, he said.
“I’d rather have it on a European level, but if that’s not possible I think for example in the Nordic countries we could agree on this kind of arrangement,” he said.
The proposal effectively envisages countries in North Africa or the western Balkans hosting deportation sites as part of an agreement made with the EU.
Denmark’s centre-left prime minister Mette Frederiksen has adopted a hard line on asylum, which sets the tone in the government made up of her Social Democrats party and its two liberal coalition partners.
Speaking to journalists in Copenhagen, Mr Dybvad said any deportation facilities the EU set up in countries outside its borders should not become “prisons”.
Mr Dybvad said return hubs would deter migrants from travelling to Europe to seek asylum if their claim for protection had little chance of success.
The Danish government recently called for an “open-minded” debate about rulings coming from the European Court of Human Rights, with the backing of eight other EU states, including Italy, Poland, Austria and Belgium. A joint letter from the group criticised court decisions that had made it harder for countries to expel “foreign criminals”.
Denmark and other governments were looking for more leeway to deport migrants who had committed “violent crimes,” Mr Dybvad said.
Separately, the Danish government is stepping up efforts to encourage some of the 45,000 refugees who fled the Syrian civil war to return home, now that the brutal regime of Bashar al-Assad has collapsed.
Officials have devised a scheme to offer families tens of thousands of euros to relocate back to Syria. About 800 or 900 families had previously shown some interest in the scheme over recent years, said the immigration minister.
Denmark, the Netherlands, Austria and several other states have been keen for Syrian refugees in Europe to be encouraged to move home. Denmark is assessing which regions in Syria could be considered safe for people to return to, Mr Dybvad said.
