EU home affairs ministers have agreed on a negotiating position for the EU Return Regulation, intensifying deportations, raids, surveillance, and detention for migrants. Amnesty International warns that these measures represent an unprecedented stripping of rights based on migration status, leaving many people in precarious legal and humanitarian situations.
The ministers’ proposal includes plans for “return hubs,” or offshore deportation centers outside the EU, which would forcibly transfer people to countries where they have no connection and risk long-term detention, violating international protections. Amnesty International likens this approach to the mass arrests and deportations in the United States, which have caused family separations and community devastation.
Under the new position, detention could become the default for individuals issued deportation decisions, lasting up to two and a half years. The rules would expand obligations, surveillance, and sanctions, including requirements that many people cannot meet due to lack of identity documents or a permanent residence. Authorities would also be allowed to raid homes and seize belongings, creating conditions for discriminatory policing and racial profiling.
The measures would enable indefinite detention of individuals deemed a threat to “public policy” or “public security,” bypassing criminal justice protections. Challenges to deportation orders would be limited, as would independent monitoring of human rights during deportation procedures. Member states also plan to retain flexibility for additional national-level sanctions, obligations, and grounds for detention.
The European Parliament is negotiating its own position, which will lead to interinstitutional negotiations in the coming months. Ministers also reached agreements on proposals related to the “safe third country” concept and a list of “safe countries of origin,” which Amnesty International warns could further undermine asylum protections, human dignity, and the right to territorial asylum in Europe.
Amnesty International urges the European Parliament to reverse these punitive measures and ensure that human rights remain central in upcoming negotiations.
