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The European Parliament approved on Wednesday an overhaul of migration policy aimed at ramping up deportations and allowing member states to set up detention centres abroad in what critics describe as a cruel system that weakens safeguards for asylum seekers.
Newsmax World reports that the move underlines the rise in anti-immigration sentiment across the European Union over the past decade that has broadened popular support for far-right parties.
The text, which requires final formal approval from 27 EU member governments, marks a sharp hardening of EU migration policy that has taken shape since an influx of over a million refugees and migrants in 2015-16.
“The Return Regulation will provide the necessary tools to make returns more efficient, with faster and more effective procedures,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a letter on Tuesday addressed to member states ahead of a meeting of EU leaders in Brussels.
EU countries say they struggle to ensure that rejected asylum seekers and people who overstay their visas leave their territory.
Critics argue EU migration policy has become too heavily focused on deterrence and deportation, overlooking the root causes of migration, including conflict, poverty, and political repression.
“The dehumanization of migrants and refugees, including in the UK, US., and many European countries, is appalling, often leading also to the denial of their rights,” Voolker Turk, the United Nations human rights chief, said on Monday in the United Nations Human Rights Council.
The commission last month invited Taliban officials to Brussels to discuss deportations of Afghan migrants, despite warnings from human rights groups that such engagement could endanger Afghans and violate core EU goals.
The commission said last month that the deportations would be limited to individuals “who pose a security risk.”
