Spain increasingly alone against immigration return centers

Every setback in the courts suffered by European plans to advance the migrant deportation centers is celebrated by the Ministry of the Interior, headed by Fernando Grande-Marlaska, who is increasingly alone among his EU counterparts in his firm opposition to the opening of internment camps in countries outside the European Union to send migrants whose applications for international protection are rejected. In light of the latest ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), announced on Friday, which paralyzes Giorgia Melonia's flagship migration model—with centers built in Albania to detain migrants before they reach Italy—the Ministry of the Interior advocates abandoning these types of "innovative solutions."

The tightening of immigration policies continues to gain more and more supporters, with a majority of conservative governments among the Twenty-Seven. The latest to join is the German government of Friedrich Merz, a conservative chancellor who formed a coalition with the Social Democrats. For his Interior Minister, return centers represent an "innovative and absolutely necessary approach." France is also considering it, while Spain is not even open to the latter.

Marlaska calls for abandoning "innovative solutions" like the Meloni model that do not yield results.

The Interior Ministry emphasizes the "external dimension" of immigration, which the minister repeatedly emphasizes at European meetings, where they are beginning to focus on how Spain has managed to contain the cayuco crisis thanks to cooperation with Mauritania, Gambia, and Senegal, the destination of the Prime Minister's mini-African tour last year to strengthen collaboration on border control. According to ministerial sources, Marlaska has expressed his "serious political, legal, economic, and sustainability reservations" in recent meetings with his European Interior Ministry colleagues regarding the return centers, which no country—for now—dares to map, aside from the case of Albania.

The central government's opposition to this type of internment camp is not only due to respect for fundamental rights, but also because there is no data to support the possibility that migration flows can be contained thanks to these types of centers, which all NGOs denounce. Therefore, the minister's intention in the upcoming forums, according to sources within his team, is to continue insisting that the European Union provide itself with "sufficient budgetary muscle" to provide more material and training aid to third-country forces tasked with preventing irregular departures and readmitting returnees—one of the most complicated tasks in the migration challenge.

Furthermore, the Government will deploy its diplomacy to try to convince the other partners that the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) must have an operational presence in third countries to discourage boat departures. This requires not only a European Union agreement, but also bilateral agreements with countries of origin and transit. The Ministry of the Interior is committed to Frontex having broad functions, ranging from border surveillance to training.