New stricter EU deportation rules risk undermining migrants' rights: Amnesty International

BRUSSELS

EU's home affairs ministers have agreed on a negotiating position for new rules on returns and deportations at EU level, a move Amnesty International says could undermine migrants' rights.

At the Justice and Home Affairs Council meeting in Brussels on Monday, ministers proposed measures including default detention for people issued deportation decisions for up to two and a half years.

The measures would expand surveillance, sanctions, and obligations for individuals subject to deportation, including home raids and seizure of belongings, which Amnesty International warned could lead to discrimination and racial profiling.

The proposals would also allow indefinite detention of individuals considered a threat to "public policy" or "public security," while limiting challenges to deportation orders and independent monitoring of human rights in deportation procedures. Member states could introduce further sanctions and obligations under national law.

The European Parliament is currently negotiating its position on the proposals, paving the way for interinstitutional talks in the coming months.

Amnesty International criticized the decision, saying it could strip migrants of rights and worsen precarious situations, and urged the European Parliament "to reverse this approach and place human rights firmly at the center of upcoming negotiations."

The "EU ministers' position on the Return Regulation reveals the EU's dogged and misguided insistence on ramping up deportations, raids, surveillance, and detention at any cost. 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," Olivia Sundberg Diez, EU advocate on migration and asylum at Amnesty International, said in a statement.

She also warned that EU member states continue to push for so-called "return hubs," or offshore deportation centers outside the EU, "forcibly transferring people to countries where they have no connection and may be detained for long periods, violating protections in international law."

"This approach mirrors the harrowing, dehumanizing and unlawful mass arrests, detention and deportations in the US, which are tearing families apart and devastating communities," Sundberg Diez said.

The Council also reached agreements on proposals related to the "safe third country" concept and the EU list of "safe countries of origin."

The London-based rights organization warned that all these measures "would seriously undermine territorial asylum in Europe as well as human dignity."