Britain and the European Union should stop trying to use the Balkans as a “warehouse for migrants,” Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Monday, adding to debate over the use of third-country “return hubs” for asylum seekers.
The EU and UK have both made moves toward processing would-be immigrants outside their borders, seeking to deal with a surge in arrivals that has become a hot-button political issue.
The EU moved in March to allow members to process migrants outside the 27-nation bloc’s borders, and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced his government had opened talks with multiple countries on setting up “return hubs” for rejected asylum seekers to await deportation.
He did not name the countries, but the Balkans look like a probable partner. Starmer made the announcement during a visit to Albania — which already hosts migrant return centers for Italy — and his government has recently unveiled a six-billion-euro investment package in North Macedonia.
“Instead of treating the Balkans as a warehouse for migrants, the EU and the UK could play an important role in supporting the development of functioning asylum systems and better frameworks for the protection of the rights of migrants,” HRW said.
It cited the example of Bosnia, a country “already being used as a dumping ground for people who happen to transit through it on their way to the EU,” according to Hugh Williamson, HRW’s Europe and Central Asia director.
“Adding rejected asylum seekers from the UK, or potentially the EU, to Bosnia’s already troubling detention system would only exacerbate existing issues and worsen abuses,” Williamson said in a statement, saying Bosnian prison inmates have limited access to lawyers and other basic rights.
Bosnia granted refugee status to just four out of 147 applicants in 2023, and asylum seekers often wait months “essentially without rights” for a decision, the group said.
