Realistic Approach(es) to Remigration for EU Member States

This paper examines how the European Union (EU) can develop a realistic remigration strategy within the constraints of EU law and the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). By analysing the failures of the UK’s Rwanda Plan and Italy’s Albania Model, the paper identifies the structural legal barriers that prevent Member States from unilaterally externalising asylum procedures. Recent Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) and European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) jurisprudence further narrows the scope for national experimentation. The EU’s new Migration Pact significantly reshapes this landscape by harmonising asylum rules, introducing a Union‑wide safe third‑country framework, and enabling external so‑called “Hotspot” processing under the legal fiction of non‑entry. 
These reforms reduce fragmentation and create new opportunities for cooperation with third countries, though strict human‑rights safeguards remain in place. The paper concludes that the Migration Pact creates, for the first time, a coherent legal framework that enables the EU to pursue an active remigration policy through externalised procedures and structured cooperation with third countries. It likewise highlights the strategic trade-offs between national and EU‑level implementation: while Member State‑led initiatives grant political autonomy and flexibility, they remain highly vulnerable to judicial challenges, whereas EU‑level mechanisms deliver greater legal durability, operational capacity, and harmonisation at the cost of reduced national discretion.