US EditionEU lawmakers set to greenlight 'return hubs' for migrants
Return hubs outside the EU will enable faster deportations and harsher penalties amid a 26% drop in irregular border crossings in 2025, per EU data.
- On March 9, the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs adopted a mandate for a Return Regulation after centre-right and far-right MEPs clinched a last-minute deal, sending the text to a full European Parliament vote.
- Political pressure from souring public opinion and far-right gains drove momentum after the European Commission proposed the return regulation last year, with about 20% return decisions implemented and arrivals falling in 2025.
- Legal changes would let member states recognise each other's return decisions, expand search powers and raids, allow return hubs outside the EU, increase detention up to two years, and remove the independent EU monitoring body.
- Rights groups and left-leaning MEPs reacted with strong criticism, as Amnesty International and Caritas Europe warned of 'grave risks of systematic human rights violations' and normalising detention, while inter-institutional negotiations with member states will start after March 12.
- Silvia Carta of PICUM warned 'They allow for deportation centres in countries they never set foot in, and will lead to increased surveillance and discrimination', while some sceptical states like France and Spain may prompt a plenary review on March 12.
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60 Articles
Finished on the road to rapid deportations from EU countries to Africa or Central Asia.
The European Parliament ' s Committee on Civil Freedoms, Justice and Domestic Affairs has approved a package of bills authorizing the establishment in third countries of centres for migrants expelled from the European Union, and has written Deutsche Welle.
EU moves to allow two years’ jail for families facing deportation
The vote on the return regulation on Monday in the European Parliament civil liberties committee now sets the legal stage for likely deportation facilities abroad, as the European Union cracks down on asylum and roll backs its commitment to refugees.
The text "Return" was voted in committee by MEPs, but instead of the original text, which was carried by the liberal rapporteur Malik Azmani, a second text was presented by the right and the right.
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