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The EU's “new and innovative solution” to migration: pay other countries to intercept people

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11 February 2026

An EU Council document obtained by Statewatch shows EU policymakers dredging up an old idea - paying non-EU states to intercept and detain irregular migrants - in service of their larger project to prevent irregular migration to Europe.

Image: Council of the EU

In search of new ways to push the EU’s border control well beyond its territory, a Council presidency paper to the 13 November 2025 meeting of the EU Council's Working Party on External Aspects of Asylum and Migration (pdf) explores “place of safety arrangements”. In short, these are agreements with third countries to have them intercept and detain irregular migrants before they arrive in Europe.

Such schemes would fill a gap in the EU's wider externalisation project. The “return hubs” and “safe third country” arrangements which EU policymakers hope to implement would be used to expel people who are already in or near Europe. “Place of safety” arrangements would be used to exert the EU’s control further along a given migration route. They could be established without changes to EU law, according to the presidency paper, meaning much less, if any, parliamentary scrutiny.

This is not the first time such an idea has been explored. In 2018, EU policymakers pushed for agreements on what were then called “disembarkation platforms”, particularly in North Africa. These efforts went nowhere, as the countries targeted for such deals, as well as the African Union, rejected them. Now the idea is being revived, with a new name.

Under these arrangements, the EU could provide financial and/or technical support to non-EU states to carry out some combination of the following functions:

• intercept people, bring them back to their own territory and process a protection claim there (or shepherd them to another country for processing);

• deport people to their country of origin or another territory further ‘back’ in the route;

• resettle people or issue them residence permits themselves; or

• enrol them in labour mobility programmes elsewhere.

The paper notes that for this to be feasible, the EU would need to provide funding and technical support for third country search and rescue vessels and operations, as well as funding for reception and processing of intercepted people. While no specific funding instruments are mentioned, it is made clear that potential partner countries would expect financial and other assistance, as well as other incentives such as labour mobility schemes for their own citizens and EU resettlement of other refugees on their territory. Third countries developing their own readmission agreements with other countries is alluded to, presenting the possibility of the EU’s help in negotiating those.

Particular attention is given to the political optics of setting up such a scheme, with the Presidency anxious about the “risk of misinterpretation by governments and the public in third countries”. In other words – third countries perceiving themselves as ‘dumping grounds’ for the EU.

The paper suggests there is interest in incorporating place of safety arrangements into the Pact for the Mediterranean being developed, as a pilot scheme or proof of concept. Target countries for this would presumably include Egypt, Tunisia and Algeria. 

Further reading

• Schengen borders: more deportations, surveillance and militarisation in the works(January 2026)
• EU wants to deport people to countries with which they have no connection (September 2025)
• UN sets conditions for EU 'disembarkation platforms' (July 2018)