EU deportation rules spark concerns over migrants’ rights

(MENAFN) The European Union is moving forward with stricter rules on deportations and returns, prompting concerns from human rights groups that the measures could severely undermine migrants’ protections.

At a Justice and Home Affairs Council meeting in Brussels on Monday, EU home affairs ministers adopted a negotiating position proposing measures that include default detention for individuals issued deportation orders for up to two and a half years. The proposals would also increase surveillance, sanctions, and obligations for people subject to deportation, such as home inspections and confiscation of belongings.

“These punitive measures amount to an unprecedented stripping of rights based on migration status and will leave more people in precarious situations and legal limbo,” said Olivia Sundberg Diez, EU advocate on migration and asylum at Amnesty International. She noted that the rules could result in discrimination and racial profiling.

The proposals would permit indefinite detention for those deemed a threat to “public policy” or “public security” while limiting the ability to challenge deportation orders and reducing independent oversight of human rights in the process. Member states could also introduce additional sanctions and obligations under national law.

Amnesty International warned that the measures could replicate practices seen in the United States, where mass arrests, detentions, and deportations have “torn families apart and devastated communities,” according to Sundberg Diez. The organization also expressed concern over EU plans for so-called “return hubs”—offshore centers to which migrants could be forcibly sent, even to countries with which they have no connection, potentially violating international law.

The Council also reached agreements on proposals concerning the “safe third country” principle and the EU list of “safe countries of origin.” Amnesty cautioned that these initiatives “would seriously undermine territorial asylum in Europe as well as human dignity,” urging the European Parliament to place human rights at the core of upcoming negotiations.

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