NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — The European Union’s executive arm will monitor any agreement to set up so-called return hubs in non-EU countries so that the rights of rejected asylum seekers sent there are protected, the bloc's migration commissioner said Friday.
Magnus Brunner said any such deal will also be vetted by the International Organization for Migration and the U.N. refugee agency to ensure compliance with those legal safeguards.
“Human rights standards and international law is non-negotiable,” Brunner told a news conference during a meeting of EU migration ministers to mark the implementation of the bloc’s new migration and asylum pact.
The return hub concept is just one of the new pact’s provisions that have been met with skepticism from human rights groups that question whether these centers could turn into long-term holding facilities overflowing with failed asylum seekers stuck in legal limbo.
Greece repeated Friday that it is one of five EU members, along with Germany, Austria, Denmark and the Netherlands, that is negotiating with African countries to set up such return hubs on their territory.
According to the Greek Migration Ministry, the five EU countries are to strike a deal with these unnamed third countries this year so that the return hubs can be up and running in 2027.
Brunner wouldn’t say which third countries are being considered for the return hubs, deferring instead to the five countries that are holding such negotiations.
“We created the rules, we create the basis, but it’s up to the member state to negotiate agreements if they want to,” the EU commissioner said. He added that EU reforms are paying off, with a 90% drop in irregular migrant arrivals from the Western Balkan route over the past three years, as well as a 67% reduction from Turkey to Greece's Aegean islands in the first four months of this year.
Cypriot Deputy Minister for Migration Nicholas Ioannides said the east Mediterranean island nation would join return hub negotiations once its six-month term at the EU’s helm comes to an end July 1.
Ioannides downplayed criticism from human rights groups about the bloc’s new migration and asylum pact that they say could deny legitimate asylum seekers a chance at a new life by rushing assessments.
He said these groups “disagree with the gist of this project, with the whole architecture,” adding that the EU’s priority was to implement new rules so that it won’t get caught unprepared in the event of another massive influx of migrants like in 2015.
Brunner argued the new pact offers protection “to actually those in need” by putting in place “clearer and more effective rules” that combat illegal migration routes and people smugglers.
Also on Friday, Cyprus announced a deal with Lithuania on relocating migrants granted international protection to the Baltic country.
FILE - A migrant walks in a field as smoke from a fire rises from inside the Pournara migrant reception center following fighting between rival groups inside the camp near the village of Kokkinotrimithia, on the outskirts of the capital Nicosia, Cyprus, Friday, Oct. 28, 2022. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias, File)
FILE - Female migrants exit the Pournara migrant reception center following fighting between rival groups inside the camp near the village of Kokkinotrimithia, on the outskirts of the capital Nicosia, Cyprus, Friday, Oct. 28, 2022. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge refused on Friday to stop the White House from staging a UFC show this weekend in an elaborate ring already built on the South Lawn to celebrate the nation’s 250th anniversary — on President Donald Trump’s 80th birthday.
U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta's ruling allows organizers to use the White House lawn as the venue for Sunday’s planned UFC mixed martial arts event.
Mehta concluded that the plaintiffs likely don’t have legal standing to challenge the event and have failed to prove that they would suffer irreparable harm by the event going forward as planned. The judge also cited the plaintiffs’ “unreasonable delay” in suing to challenge an event that’s been in the works for months.
“In the context of an emergency application — and coupled with the fact that the UFC fight date was long ago known — it is fair to say Plaintiffs unreasonably delayed bringing suit, undercutting their claims of irreparable harm,” Mehta wrote.
Attorneys from the nonprofit Public Integrity Project sued to challenge Trump’s “UFC Freedom 250” event on behalf of an activist and a Vietnam War veteran. The two plaintiffs also asked the court to block organizers from building anything for the event on White House grounds, including a 92-foot-tall, 600-ton steel structure called The Claw.
The plaintiffs’ alleged “aesthetic harms,” the judge noted, are temporary since The Claw will be disassembled starting Monday morning and staging equipment at the Lincoln Memorial must be removed before then. “The President’s musings about permanency of the Claw does not move the dial in the face of a White House official’s clear representation,” the judge wrote.
The White House called the lawsuit is a baseless attempt to prevent Trump from hosting an event that’s no different from many others routinely hosted at public forums in the nation’s capital.
Trump's administration can’t issue permits for sporting events on the South Lawn or at the Lincoln Memorial, where UFC fighters planned to hold a press conference in front of fans on Friday, according to plaintiffs’ attorneys. They noted that the event is a privately organized, for-profit business venture, with VIP packages costing millions of dollars.
“The President’s administration is granting the UFC an extraordinary business opportunity it may not lawfully grant, and in exchange the UFC is throwing an event at which its leadership, fighters, advertisers, and various celebrities will all pay tribute to the President on his birthday,” plaintiffs’ attorneys wrote.
The National Park Service and the Interior Department are named as defendants in the lawsuit.
In 2019, during his first term in office, Trump became the first sitting president to attend a UFC show. Trump, a Republican, is a friend of UFC president and CEO Dana White.
Mehta was nominated to the bench by President Barack Obama, a Democrat. Mehta has presided over other Trump-related cases, including civil litigation accusing Trump of inciting a mob of his supporters to attack the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, after he lost the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden, a Democrat.
Members of the media view the arena for the UFC Freedom 250 fights on the South Lawn of the White House, Thursday, June 11, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
The arena for the UFC Freedom 250 fights is pictured on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Thursday, June 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
The arena for the UFC Freedom 250 fights on the South Lawn of the White House is photographed Thursday, June 11, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
The arena for the UFC Freedom 250 fights is pictured on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Thursday, June 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
