Greek daily calls it 'more effective return'; Austrian daily calls it a deportation law with 'controversial return hubs'

What both carry. The EU's new return rules got final approval on 1 October. Both reports say return hubs in third countries are now lawful. Efimerida ton Syntakton adds that coordinated return missions are lawful too.

Where they part. The two papers use different words for the same law.

Who is acting. Der Standard's headline names the interior ministers. Its body says only that the law "was finally signed off". Efimerida ton Syntakton names no actor at all.

Austria moves first. Only Der Standard reports Karner's plan. It says he wants to set up return centres in third countries quickly, with a "group of implementers". We hold no second report of this.

What is not settled. - Which third countries would host the hubs. Neither report names one. - Who calls the hubs controversial. Der Standard does not say. - Which governments are in the "group of implementers". Der Standard names only Austria. - When the rules start to apply. Neither report gives a date.

What this is about. The European Union has finished passing a law on how its members send home people who have no right to stay. For the first time, it lets them send such people to "return hubs" in countries outside the Union.

How it got here. Since 2008, returns have run under the Return Directive. A directive sets goals, and each member state writes its own law to meet them. So the rules differ from country to country. After the large arrivals of 2015 and 2016, governments argued for years over how to share responsibility for asylum seekers. That argument ended in the Pact on Migration and Asylum, adopted in May 2024. The pact left returns largely unchanged. In March 2025 the European Commission proposed a regulation to replace the directive. A regulation applies directly in every member state, word for word. The proposal opened the door to return hubs outside the EU.

Who the actors are. The Commission proposes EU laws. The European Parliament and the Council of the EU must both pass them. On migration, the Council meets as the member states' interior ministers. Austria's interior minister, Gerhard Karner of the centre-right ÖVP, is one of them. He has long called for asylum and return procedures outside Europe. Greece sits on the Union's sea border, where many people first reach Europe.

What is at stake. Supporters say the law will make returns actually happen. Rights groups have argued that hubs abroad could leave people beyond the reach of EU protections. The two reports we hold quote neither side.

Where it stands. The law now has final approval. Austria says it wants to move fast. Which countries would host the hubs is still unknown.