Externalisation and the Outsourcing of Asylum
- Europe Must Act
- Aug 22
- 2 min read
The Externalisation of Asylum - An EMA Topic of the Month Report
To read our report in full, download it here:
Migration externalisation is defined as the extraterritorial actions taken by states to prevent mobile persons and groups, including people who migrate and asylum seekers, from entering their legal jurisdiction.
The primary aim of the externalisation is to shift the responsibilities of migration control away from the countries of destination and onto transit or origin countries.
Examples of this strategy are the EU deals with countries such as Turkey, Libya, Egypt, or Morocco with the aim of subcontracting or outsourcing border controls. These deals may include:
Support for border control and surveillance, and provision of resources and training to border security forces in partner countries
Funding or facilitating the establishment of checkpoints, detention facilities, or asylum processing centres outside national borders.
Return and readmission agreements - such as the one between Spain and Morocco - that foresee the forcible return of individuals to their country of origin, as well as obligations for countries to receive back those who transited through their territory.
In some cases, international development aid may be used as an incentive. Economic development programs implemented by local or non-governmental actors, but funded by third countries, may also serve as indirect tools of migration externalisation policy.
This idea of relying on externalisation to manage migration is not new, but its increasingly bold implementation marks a significant shift in EU migration governance. As recently as 2018, the European Commission explicitly ruled out the externalisation of asylum procedures and return centres, citing legal, political, and ethical concerns. Yet just seven years later, proposals for processing centres in third countries and expanded return agreements have become central pillars of the Union’s strategy.
In the first months of 2025 alone, the European Union significantly intensified its efforts in this direction:
In March, it proposed a Common European System for Returns, which introduces, for example, the possibility of creating return hubs in third countries
In April, the European Commission, acting under the new Asylum Procedure Regulation, proposed establishing the first EU-level list of safe countries of origin
In May, a revision of the ‘safe third country’ concept was discussed.
In this report, we will explore this recent development in European migration governance, highlight practical examples that underscore the problems of externalisation, and examine positive instances of resistance to this unjust practice.
Read the rest of our report by downloading it here:
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