All 46 Council of Europe Members Sign Declaration on Border Control and Third-Country Return Hubs

The UK Labour government scrapped the Conservatives’ deal to send migrants crossing the Channel to Rwanda. A Strasbourg judge issued an 11th-hour decision in 2022 that grounded the Rwanda deportation flights. Britain’s Supreme Court ruled in 2023 that the Rwanda deal was unlawful because Rwanda was not a safe third country.

More than 200,000 migrants are thought to have arrived in the UK after crossing the Channel since 2018. The previous UK government’s Rwanda plans cost £715m by 2024 and did not result in a single person being sent to Rwanda. Shabana Mahmood told MPs in November that the Home Office was in active negotiations with several countries about return hubs but no deals had been confirmed.

The EU has voted to allow the possibility of return hubs. Denmark, Austria, Greece, Germany and the Netherlands are involved in talks on return hubs. Discussions have reportedly centred on 11 countries: Rwanda, Ghana, Senegal, Tunisia, Libya, Mauritania, Egypt, Uganda, Uzbekistan, Armenia and Ethiopia.

Montenegro has denied reports that it is considering housing refused asylum seekers. " Berset added that discussions about removing people who arrived in Europe by irregular routes would take place during the conference at a multilateral level. " He stated the convention is 75 years old but has never been static and has shown its ability to adapt and respond to new challenges.

Prof Eirik Bjorge KC said: "Article 3 is an embodiment of the very object and purpose of the convention and as such cannot be modified through political declarations.