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EU pools return flights for illegal aliens

LUXEMBOURG, April 27 (UPI) -- European governments Thursday agreed to increase deportations by using joint chartered flights to return unwanted immigrants.

Under the plan, governments will be responsible for chartering a flight to take illegal immigrants back to their country of origin. Any remaining seats can be filled by other EU member states.

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The aim of the joint operation is to cut costs and speed up the return of illegal immigrants, justice and home affairs ministers said.

Members of the Brussels-based club have already set up shared return flight operations on a bilateral basis. Since 2005, France, Spain, Italy, Britain and Germany have used joint chartered flights to send immigrants back to countries such as Romania and Afghanistan.

Meeting in Luxembourg, ministers also called for more use of FRONTEX, the bloc's external borders agency. The Warsaw-based body will be responsible for training national deportation officers in order to ensure that operations are conducted in "full respect of human rights and of the subject being removed".

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