The EU's migration policy has increasingly centred on the controversial notion of using "return hubs" to externalise irregular migrants to third countries, as enshrined in the recently adopted Return Regulation.
"We need to set up repatriation centres in third countries, as well as other innovative solutions outside Europe. We are working hard on this," Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and her Danish counterpart Mette Frederiksen wrote in a joint statement earlier this month.
