EU
negotiators agree new migrant return law
Change
would allow countries to send people who’ve been ordered to leave EU territory
to “return hubs” outside the bloc.
June 1,
2026 11:06 pm CET
By Hanne
Cokelaere
Negotiators
on Monday agreed new rules to speed up and increase deportations from the EU,
including making it possible to send failed asylum-seekers to hubs outside the
bloc.
The text
is part of sweeping reforms the EU is rolling out to increase control over who
crosses its external borders and to support countries that receive the most
external migrants, with Monday’s agreement landing just days before other
migration and asylum reforms start applying on June 12.
Monday’s
agreement will help the EU regain control over “who comes to to the European
Union, but also who has to leave the European Union,” Migration Commissioner
Magnus Brunner said.
He
pointed to the rate of failed asylum-seekers who leave the bloc, which recent
Eurostat figures put around 27 percent. “We must give the people the feeling
back that we have control over what’s happening,” he said.
Under the
deal, countries will be allowed to send people who’ve been ordered to leave EU
territory to “return hubs” outside the bloc — an option several EU countries
are already exploring, but which civil society groups warn could open the door
to more abuse and human rights violations.
The text
also introduces stricter rules for dealing with people who are considered a
security threat; the possibility of home searches; long detentions; entry bans;
and penalties for those who don’t cooperate.
“For
years, Europe sent the worst possible message: even if you had no right to
stay, chances were high that nothing would happen. That era is ending. If you
have no right to stay in Europe, you will have to leave,” French MEP
François-Xavier Bellamy, who represented the center-right European People’s
Party in the negotiations, said in a comment.
Parliament
entered the negotiations with a position supported by the EPP, the right-wing
European Conservatives and Reformists and the far-right Patriots for Europe and
Europe of Sovereign Nations groups, despite opposition from lawmakers in
liberal and left-wing groups.
Monday’s
deal introduces a “legal arsenal serving a xenophobic ideology,” Greens
negotiator Mélissa Camara said in a comment. The French MEP slammed the text
for permitting hubs outside the European Union, the detention of minors, and
“home visits inspired by ICE practices,” referring to the controversial U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.
Talks
last month collapsed over disagreements on when the new measures should be
implemented. Under Monday’s deal, parts of the text will only come in after a
year, but some provisions, including measures allowing countries to establish
return hubs, will start applying immediately — a key point for countries that
are forging ahead with deals to establish them, including The Netherlands and
Germany.
Marta
Welander, EU advocacy director of the International Refugee Committee, said the
plans mark an “alarming new chapter in the EU’s approach to asylum and
migration.”
“This
deal will give governments much broader powers to detain and deport people. It
looks set to normalise 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,” she said.
Both the
Council and the Parliament still need to approve the deal.
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