Two days before migration ministers from five countries were due to sit down in Copenhagen, Amnesty International put its objection on the record. On Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2026, the group warned that European plans to send rejected asylum seekers to “return hubs” in Rwanda and Uganda could turn into “cruel black holes for human rights.”
The ministers, from Austria, Denmark, Germany, Greece and the Netherlands, were set to meet on Sept. 4 to review progress. Reports indicate the talks could produce a Ugandan centre for up to 10,000 rejected asylum seekers by 2027, JURIST reported.
Eve Geddie, director of Amnesty’s European Institutions Office, said the hubs carry a risk of grave violations wherever they are placed: arbitrary detention, torture, ill-treatment and forced onward returns to countries of origin. “Any responsible government should reject these plans outright,” she said. She was particularly alarmed that discussions were reportedly settling on two countries she said have “appalling human rights records,” despite conflict and instability in the Great Lakes Region.
A legal test the hubs may not pass
The EU Return Regulation would supply the legal basis for such hubs. The European Parliament approved it in June, but it still awaits final approval by the European Council. The European Commission has said arrangements can only be struck with a third country that respects international human rights standards, including the principle of non-refoulement, which bars sending people to places where their life or freedom would be at risk.
Rwanda has already failed a version of that test. In 2023 the UK Supreme Court unanimously found substantial grounds to believe asylum seekers sent there would face a real risk of refoulement, and ruled Britain’s Rwanda removal policy unlawful. Uganda, JURIST noted, criminalises consensual same-sex conduct under its Anti-Homosexuality Act, which makes “aggravated homosexuality” a capital offence.
Governments push back
The governments involved describe a less settled picture. Rwandan government spokesperson Yolande Makolo said in August that the discussions were preliminary and no agreement had been reached. A European Commission spokesperson said the EU executive is “not involved in the discussions on the hubs.” The Uganda talks are understood to be bilateral, between each of the five states and Kampala.
Geddie put the plans in a wider frame. She called the EU’s “migration diplomacy” an attempt to shift responsibility onto countries in the Global South that already receive more refugees with fewer resources. Pointing to the Italy-Albania deal, she said hubs “will disproportionately harm racialized people,” and she tied the push to the chants of “send them back” heard in the European Parliament in June. Amnesty had raised similar alarm in March, when it called the Return Regulation punitive.
Sources
- Amnesty International warns EU migrant return hub plans risk human rights abuses in Rwanda and Uganda | JURIST
- EU: 'Return hub' plans in Rwanda and Uganda risk becoming 'cruel black holes' for human rights – Amnesty International (the organisation's own statement)
