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Brussels has outlined plans to send hundreds of thousands of migrants to “return hubs” outside the EU if their country of origin will not accept them, in a drastic tightening of migration policy.

Henna Virkkunen, vice-president at the European Commission, said “EU return policy is failing” and had fuelled the rise of far-right parties.

Germany’s chancellor-in-waiting Friedrich Merz has also campaigned on tougher migration policies, particularly after a series of deadly attacks by migrants in recent months.

Merz pushed for more border checks, an entry ban for asylum seekers and the speeding up of deportations in the run-up to last month’s federal elections as he tried to halt the rise of the Alternative for Germany (AfD). The far-right party that advocated for mass repatriations of migrants ended up finishing second with a record 21 per cent of the vote. Only about a fifth of those issued with an order to leave the EU do so, Virkkunen said, which means the bloc’s population is less willing to accept those eligible for protection.