EU Strikes Migration Deal              06/02 06:10

   

   BRUSSELS (AP) -- The European Union has moved forward with a vast overhaul 
of its migration policy, aiming to ramp up deportations and ink controversial 
deals to build detention centers abroad, in what rights groups compare to the 
Trump administration's aggressive immigration policies.

   "The new regulation will speed up the return process and increase returns of 
persons who have no legal right to stay in the EU," said Nicholas Ioannides, 
deputy migration minister for Cyprus, which holds the rotating presidency of 
the 27-nation bloc.

   The deal was struck between the EU's three main institutions -- the European 
Commission, the European Council and European Parliament -- during a so-called 
"trilogue" Monday evening.

   "Europe cannot afford another period of standstill," said Dutch lawmaker 
Malik Azmani, who shepherded the regulation through the European Parliament.

   "There is an urgent need for an effective return policy with higher return 
rates," he said, adding that only 28% of rejected asylum seekers return to 
their country of origin, with the majority staying put in the EU. "This 
situation is deeply concerning. It undermines public confidence in our common 
migration policies."

   Critics compared the regulation to the immigration policies of the Trump 
administration, which has struck a series of secretive agreements with nations 
around the world to deport thousands of people to countries that are not their 
own. The United Kingdom also planned to deport migrants to Rwanda, but the plan 
was bogged down in legal red tape and was dropped when a new government came to 
power in July 2024.

   Several EU governments are already in talks with third countries

   "Across the Atlantic, we see the violence and fear created by ICE's brutal 
immigration enforcement," said Silvia Carter, spokesperson for the 
Brussels-based Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants, 
referring to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. "Europe should be 
learning from the harms of that model, not building its own version of it."

   Law enforcement officers across the bloc no longer need warrants from judges 
to raid private residences or public institutions like hospitals, she said. 
"The regulation is going to create a draconian detention and deportation 
machine."

   The provisional agreement will now head to the EU lawmakers and governments, 
where approval will likely be swift.

   "These new rules will ensure swifter, simpler, and more effective procedures 
across the European Union for returning non-EU nationals who have no right to 
stay, in full respect of international law and fundamental rights," said Henna 
Virkkunen, EU commissioner for technology.

   EU member nations will soon be able to set up bilateral deals with countries 
outside the bloc to build deportation centers. At least five EU nations -- 
Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Denmark and Greece -- are already in talks 
with third countries, mostly in Africa, to host "return hubs" on the model of 
Italy's detention deal with Albania.

   "We are delivering the member states tools in their hands to make those 
agreements and arrangements with third countries," Azmani said.

   Mlissa Camara, a lawmaker from the French Green party, said the deal was "a 
historic setback" for human rights in the bloc.

   "The legalization of return hubs outside the European Union, the green light 
for the detention of minors, home visits inspired by ICE practices: the legal 
arsenal serving a xenophobic ideology is now complete," she said.

   EU migration policy has steadily shifted to the right

   The EU has continually tightened migration policies after right-wing parties 
secured the majority of votes in some countries in the 2024 elections to the 
European Parliament. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, from 
the center-right European People's Party coalition, has said that the new 
measures will prevent a repeat of the 2015 crisis caused by Syria's civil war, 
when about 1 million people arrived to seek asylum.

   Fueled by people fleeing conflict and poverty across Africa and the Middle 
East, the 2015 refugee crisis and successive years of irregular migration to 
Europe drove a rightward shift in the bloc's politics not unlike the 
anti-immigrant sentiment that buoyed a " red wave " in the 2024 election in the 
United States.

   After successfully campaigning on tougher migration policies, the winners of 
that election, the European People's Party, the largest political group in the 
EU, began negotiating migration reform with centrist and left parties only to 
eventually sidestep them by allying instead with the far right, said Carter, 
the asylum rights activist. "There was quite an unprecedented shift in the 
European Parliament."

   Advocacy groups warned the regulation would cut deep into the protections 
granted by the EU fundamental charter on human rights and expose people to 
risks outside the bloc.

   "This deal will give governments much broader powers to detain and deport 
people," said Marta Welander, a spokesperson for the International Rescue 
Committee, a humanitarian organization. "It looks set to normalize immigration 
raids, expand the use of detention in prison-like facilities outside EU 
territory that are essentially legal black holes, and increase the risk of 
people being deported to countries where they could face persecution, torture 
or worse."