Biden administration weighing $18 billion in arms transfers to Israel, sources say

STRASBOURG, France: The European Union wants to increase deportations and is opening the way for “return hubs” to be set up in third countries for rejected asylum-seekers, according to a new migration proposal unveiled Tuesday.
Only 20 percent of people with a deportation order are effectively removed from EU territory, according to the European Commission, which presented the “European System for Returns” in Strasbourg as a potential solution.
The proposal aims to set a standard for all 27 members of the bloc and allow national authorities from one country to enforce the deportation order issued by another. Such rules were missing from the EU’s migration and asylum pact approved last year.
“The European system needs to be clear that when someone is issued a return decision they are being told to leave, not just the country but the entire European Union,” said Magnus Brunner, the EU’s commissioner for migration, who called the current 20 percent removal rate unacceptable.
“Any figure would be an improvement, but we don’t want to pin down any specific figures,” he added.
For the proposal to work, however, the EU needs to get countries of origin to readmit their citizens. Brunner acknowledged that the commission and member states are still working on improving that.
The “return hubs,” a euphemism for deportation centers, would apply only to people whose asylum requests have been rejected and exclude unaccompanied minors, Brunner said. He added that any future deal would have to include safeguards to ensure international law and human rights are respected.
The EU wouldn’t set up or manage such centers, which could be in Europe or elsewhere, but would create the legal framework to allow states to negotiate with non-EU countries willing to take the rejected asylum-seekers.
This differs from the existing but so-far ineffective deal signed by Italy with Albania to offshore the asylum processing of migrants rescued at sea. At the time, the contentious plan was applauded by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen as an “out-of-the-box” solution to manage irregular migration but courts in Italy have repeatedly blocked it.
Brunner reiterated the need for “innovative” solutions to manage irregular migration and asylum — a highly politicized issue that the far right has used across the continent to gain votes.
While the potential “return hubs” were the most striking aspect of the proposal, it also included stricter punishments for those absconding deportations and extends the detention of rejected asylum-seekers posing a flight or security risk from 18 months to 24 months. The commission did not provide any data on how many people currently pose a “security risk.”
European Commission Executive Vice President Henna Virkkunen, who presented the new migration reform alongside Brunner, said the proposal was tougher but fair and would encourage migrants to leave voluntarily before they had to be forcibly removed.
Migrant rights groups criticized the proposed reform saying it undermined the right to asylum and would lead to more detentions.
“We can likely expect more people being locked up in immigration detention centers across Europe, families separated and people sent to countries they don’t even know,” said Silvia Carta of the Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants.
The proposal will now be sent to the European Parliament and member states for approval.

MANILA: Former Philippines leader Rodrigo Duterte left Manila on a jet on Tuesday bound for The Hague, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr said, hours after he was arrested at the request of the International Criminal Court over a “war on drugs” that defined his presidency.
Duterte, a firebrand ex-mayor and former prosecutor who led the Philippines from 2016 to 2022, was arrested at a Manila airport early on Tuesday, in a major step in the ICC’s investigation into thousands of killings in an anti-drugs crackdown that caused shock and condemnation around the world.
“I am confident the arrest was proper, correct and followed all necessary legal procedures,” Marcos told a press conference confirming Duterte had left the country bound for the Netherlands.
“We did not help the International Criminal Court in any way. The arrest was made in compliance with Interpol.”
The “war on drugs” was Duterte’s signature campaign platform that swept the mercurial crime-buster to power and he soon delivered on promises he made during vitriolic speeches to kill thousands of drug pushers and users.
Duterte has long insisted he instructed police to kill only in self-defense and has always defended the crackdown, repeatedly telling his supporters he was ready to “rot in jail” if it meant ridding the Philippines of drugs.
Veronica Duterte, the 79-year-old’s youngest daughter, said on Instagram her father had boarded the jet but the family had not been informed of its destination.
“The airplane used to kidnap my dad just left minutes ago,” she posted.
Duterte could become Asia’s first former head of state to go on trial at the ICC.
Rights groups
His arrest follows years of him rebuking and taunting the ICC since he unilaterally withdrew the Philippines from the court’s founding treaty in 2019 as it started looking into allegations of systematic murders of drug dealers on his watch.
The ICC, a court of last resort, is probing alleged crimes against humanity and says it has jurisdiction to investigate alleged crimes that took place while a country was a member.
Duterte and his family and allies expressed fury at the arrest, calling it unlawful.
A lawyer petitioned the Supreme Court on Duterte’s behalf on Tuesday seeking a temporary restraining order to prevent authorities from complying with the ICC’s request.
A copy of the warrant, seen by Reuters, said Duterte is accused of criminal responsibility for the murder of at least 43 people between 2011 and 2019, which would include time when he served as mayor of southern Davao City.
Human rights groups and families of victims said his detention was a key step toward accountability for the killings of thousands of people in the Philippines, where police investigations have moved at a snail’s pace. Duterte has not been charged with any crimes locally.
According to police, 6,200 suspects were killed during anti-drug operations under Duterte’s presidency that they say ended in shootouts. But activists say the real toll of the crackdown was far greater, with many thousands more slumland drug users, some named on community “watch lists,” killed in mysterious circumstances.
The prosecutor of the ICC has said as many as 30,000 people may have been killed by police or unidentified individuals.
Police have rejected allegations from rights groups of systematic murders, staged crime scenes and fabricated incident reports.