EU to deport illegal migrants out of bloc

The European Union has unveiled proposed new rules to slow the influx of illegal migrants from Africa and the Middle East, in a move aimed, in part, at halting the rise of anti-immigration, far-right parties.

The rules, which EU lawmakers supported on Monday, would let member nations send migrants to "third countries" outside the bloc that are not the migrants' homelands, countering the problem of some migrants not revealing their home countries, and the challenge of some home countries refusing to accept repatriated citizens.

Currently, only around 29 percent of people who enter the EU illegally or who overstay visas leave the bloc voluntarily when asked to do so.

"With the new rules, we have more control over who can come to the EU, who can stay, and who needs to leave," said Magnus Brunner, the EU commissioner responsible for internal affairs and migration. "We will ensure that those who have no right to stay in the EU are actually returned."

The new rules, which must still be formally approved by EU member nations and by the European Parliament, follow an influx of illegal migrants into the bloc in recent years that has overwhelmed resources and infrastructure and fueled the rise of the far-right. The rules follow other recent attempts by the bloc to reduce irregular migration, which fell by 26 percent last year to 178,000 people, the smallest total since 2021.

But right-wing groups say the number is still far too high, and that the bloc's attempts to secure its borders are too little, too late.

More than 250 civil society organizations have reacted with dismay to the proposed rules and called on EU member nations to reject them, saying the deportation of migrants to third countries could leave people open to abuse.

Sarah Chander, director of the Equinox Initiative for Racial Justice, told Euronews: "The EU is legitimizing offshore prisons, racial profiling, and child detention in ways we have never seen."

The relaxation of previous rules that outlawed the deportation of migrants to third countries is part of an overall tightening of the EU's migration laws and would allow EU member nations to establish "return hubs" outside the bloc for people who have asylum claims rejected.

The new rules also call for detention periods to be raised from up to six months to up to two years for migrants awaiting deportation. And they clear the way for property seizures and searches, while introducing new penalties, including bans on future entries and fines.

Euronews described the proposed new rules as the bloc's "toughest migration crackdown yet" and said it was "the most hardline turn in EU migration policy in decades".