(DENMARK) – Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said on June 23, 2026 that the first European Union-funded deportation centres outside the bloc could begin operating within the next year, days after the EU formally approved new rules allowing member states to set up what it calls return hubs.

Frederiksen said, “In 2026-27, we will see the first return hub outside [Europe]. I think we will be able to do it within the next year.” She said a “coalition of the willing” backed by the European Commission was leading the effort.

The move follows the formal legal approval of the EU Returns Regulation on June 17, 2026. The measure passed the European Parliament with 418 votes in favor and 218 against.

Under the regulation, EU member states can strike bilateral agreements with non-EU countries to host return hubs for people the bloc has ordered removed. The rules allow detention pending removal for up to 24 months, with a possible extension to 30 months for those deemed a security risk.

Magnus Brunner, EU Commissioner for Migration, welcomed the new system after the vote. “This regulation tells everybody that it is us and not the smugglers deciding who can stay in the European Union and who must leave,” Brunner said.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis had outlined a similar timetable days earlier. “Our goal is to conclude the first agreements for the creation of these structures in 2026, so that they are operational from 2027,” Mitsotakis said on June 14, 2026.

The regulation marks the first time the EU has adopted a single legal framework for sending people with no right to remain to facilities outside its territory. European officials have argued that the system addresses a return rate that stands at about 28% and that the bloc wants to triple by 2030.

That shift has drawn immediate scrutiny from rights advocates and from officials who warn that offshoring removals weakens legal protections once people leave European soil. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk has warned that such hubs create “legal black holes.”

Potential host countries discussed in recent debate include Rwanda, Uganda and Uzbekistan. The countries have surfaced as possible sites as EU governments search for third-country partners willing to accept deportees under bilateral deals.

The plan also arrives as European governments face pressure from right-wing and far-right parties that have pushed tougher migration controls. Frederiksen, a center-left leader, has become one of the clearest advocates of external processing and removal arrangements inside the bloc.

Officials and critics alike describe the turn as an “ICE-ification” of European migration policy, a reference to the harder line and wider detention model associated with U.S. immigration enforcement. The phrase captures a change in method: the transfer of custody and responsibility from EU territory to third countries.

Washington has advanced similar ideas this year. Reports in June 2026 said the United States reached a $5.1 million agreement with Eswatini to accept a limited number of deportees, mirroring the third-country model now entering EU law.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, under Secretary Markwayne Mullin, has also pressed a broader removal drive. In a June 18, 2026 statement, a DHS spokesperson said, “These heinous criminals, once arrested, should be removed at lightning speed, not housed on American soil at the taxpayer’s expense. DHS is moving swiftly to utilize existing detention space with our state and county partners.”

Two days later, DHS wrote on X, “The American people have mandated us to arrest and expel illegal criminal immigrants from our country, and under President Trump and Secretary Mullin, we will continue to fulfill that mandate. Our message is clear: LEAVE NOW or we will find you, arrest you, and deport you.”

Mullin also said in a televised interview on May 26, 2026 that DHS was “drawing up plans” to halt international flights to sanctuary cities that refuse to cooperate with ICE enforcement actions. The U.S. statements do not address the Danish plan directly, but they show a parallel push toward faster removals and wider use of detention and offshore arrangements.

Inside the EU system, the new rules carry direct consequences for people ordered out of the bloc. Individuals removed through the process can face entry bans lasting from 10 to 20 years, closing off any future legal route back to Europe for a decade or more.

The regulation also allows authorities to transfer families with children to offshore hubs, extending a practice that many national systems had previously restricted. Once moved, families would face proceedings outside the ordinary framework of courts and legal services available within EU member states.

Rights groups have focused on that point. Their concern is not only where people are held, but what happens to access to lawyers, court review and monitoring once detention moves beyond the Union’s borders.

Volker Türk’s warning about “legal black holes” has become a focal phrase in that debate. It speaks to a fear that return hubs will place people in spaces where European legal guarantees apply less directly, even though the removals originate under EU law.

Supporters of the regulation argue that the existing system has failed to enforce final removal orders, feeding smuggling networks and undermining public faith in asylum rules. Brunner framed the regulation as a statement of state control over who remains in the bloc and who must leave.

Frederiksen has taken the same line while arguing that the EU needs outside facilities if it wants return decisions to mean anything in practice. Her timetable suggests the political debate has moved past whether such centres should exist and toward where they will be built and which governments will host them.

That timetable is tight. The law won formal approval on June 17, 2026, Frederiksen made her announcement on June 23, 2026, and Mitsotakis said agreements could be concluded in 2026 so the structures open in 2027.

The coming months are likely to turn on negotiations with third countries, the design of detention arrangements and the legal terms that govern oversight, access and appeals. Those details will determine whether the EU’s new return hubs become the model European governments have sought for years, or a new front in the fight over deportation centres, migration law and the reach of the EU Returns Regulation.

European officials have already made clear that the policy is not a distant concept. Frederiksen’s forecast points to the first return hubs opening within a year, a pace that would move one of the bloc’s toughest migration ideas from legislation into daily practice.