The European Union is nearly ready to issue a sweeping new deportation regulation that rights groups say will usher in an “ICE‑style” enforcement regime across the bloc, normalising mass detention , home raids and offshore return centres for undocumented people, including children.
The law is expected to be finalised in negotiations this week , ahead of largely formal votes in June that would cement the bloc’s most hardline migration instrument in years.
Silvia Carta, advocacy officer at the Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants (PICUM), told The New Arab that the label “return regulation” obscures its real purpose.
“We prefer calling it deportation regulation, as we feel it gives a better idea of what the EU is actually doing,” she said, warning that EU lawmakers are doubling down on punishment of migrants rather than protection of them.
Only a small fraction of people issued with return decisions currently leave the EU, according to the Commission – a statistic that has been used to justify a far‑reaching overhaul of the system.
Rather than investing in regularisation channels or safe pathways, Carta says the proposed regulation piles on “ obligations and punitive elements against people to push them to cooperate with their own deportation”, often through “extremely disproportionate requirements” that leave wide discretion to national authorities.
These powers can be used “to punish them, for example, through detention or criminal sanctions, if they do not cooperate with deportations,” she added.
One of the most controversial innovations is a new set of “investigative measures” that will make it easier for authorities to search private homes and other “relevant premises” in order to find and deport undocumented people. Campaigners say this will entrench a culture of raids and intrusive surveillance inside EU territory, increasing the risk that those offering shelter or services to migrants are drawn into enforcement.
The regulation also opens the door for member states to establish “return hubs” or deportation centres outside EU territory, where people could be held before removal to their country of origin or to a third country that has agreed to take them.
Carta said these externalisation provisions “basically open the door to a new system of potential cooperation with third countries with very unclear guarantees that could lead to models like Italy with Albania,” where people are processed and detained far from public scrutiny.
She agreed this latest push essentially criminalises migration, “something which has never been done before at such a large scale – especially with legislation.” Expansion of detention powers Perhaps the starkest change is the expansion of immigration detention .
The text currently on the table would allow people – including children and families – to be detained for up to 30 months if authorities say there is a “reasonable prospect of removal” and a risk of absconding.
Carta said the new legislation is “definitely not in line with international standards”, particularly regarding the wellbeing of children, stressing that international bodies have determined that “detention is never in the best interest of the child.”
“In theory, detention should be the very last resort – but in practice, we see this happening more and more across the EU,” she noted.
For rights groups, the regulation risks colliding head‑on with core protections in EU and international law .
Carta pointed to “a lot of elements that are likely to be incompatible with fundamental rights, such as the right to private life, the right to family life – really core rights that should always be protected,” saying this has been “a big concern for the negotiators who have been trying to introduce some small safeguards, exactly to avoid legal challenges on some of the most controversial elements.”
PICUM and other organisations also warn of a “chilling effect” far beyond detention centres and border zones, as the regulation leans on broad detection measures and cooperation duties that could pull service providers into enforcement.
“We’re also really thinking of the impact it could have on society, for example, on all the possible service providers, healthcare providers that are in contact with people who are undocumented, and the fact that this might have a chilling effect on solidarity, but also on basic service,” Carta said.
With talks between the EU Council, the EU parliament, and the European Commission now entering their final stretch, campaigners acknowledge that the political direction is now largely set. “I think that we are at the end of the process. Most of the political decisions have been made,” Carta said.
For them, the battle is already shifting towards how far national authorities will go in using their new powers – and whether courts will ultimately allow an “ICE‑style” deportation regime to become the new normal in Europe.