The European Union wants to increase deportations and is opening the way for “return hubs” to be set up in third countries for rejected asylum-seekers.

The European Union plans to allow countries to return people without the right to stay in the EU to so-called return hubs in third countries, as the rise of anti-immigration parties is pushing the bloc to take an increasingly tough stance.

Only about a fifth of those issued with an order to leave the EU do so, Virkkunen said, which means the bloc’s population is less willing to accept those eligible for protection. “We must be firm and assertive in our approach,

The European Union will create a common set of procedures for migrant deportations. It has also proposed to create "return hubs" as part of a controversial plan to deport rejected asylum seekers to third countries.