Europe Moves Toward “ICE-Style” Migration Enforcement

The European Parliament approved on Thursday a law aimed at speeding up the return of irregular migrants in larger numbers by building deportation centres outside the EU. The bill passed 389 to 206, with 32 abstentions, and a large part of the hemicycle burst into applause and cheers after the vote.

The mechanics are radical. The law enables EU countries to return irregular migrants to third countries unrelated to their origin, as long as they have bilateral agreements in place with a non-EU state to build centres called “return hubs” in its territory. Families with children would be included in these deportations, excluding from the provision only the unaccompanied minors.

The procedural changes gut existing protections. Parliament and Council aim to change the automatic suspensive effect of appeals, which, under current law, suspend any deportation of a migrant until a final judgment is rendered.The law will also increase the legal detention period to up to two years and impose practically unlimited entry bans in the EU on the returned people.

The most controversial provision allows cooperation with regimes the EU doesn’t formally recognize. The Parliament’s version added a provision allowing talks with “non-recognised third country entities” for the purposes of readmission, which could result in cooperation with non-democratic regimes – such as the Taliban – to return people.

The current system returns approximately 20% of people ordered to leave. Greece, Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, and Denmark have already entered into negotiations with governments mainly in Africa to host sites to hold migrants denied asylum.

The parliamentary debate exposed what’s being normalized. Seventy rights groups warned in February that the reform would allow for “ICE-style immigration enforcement”. However, the Council’s general approach goes even further than ICE, endorsing home raids and searches of ‘other relevant premises’.

The offshore processing model has no proven track record. Britain abandoned a scheme to deport undocumented migrants to Rwanda, while Italian-run facilities to process migrants in Albania have faced legal challenges and a slow uptake. The International Rescue Committee warns the centers are essentially legal black holes. They will be located outside of EU territory, where policymakers cannot guarantee that people’s rights will be upheld. It remains unknown exactly how these new processes will work in practice, where people held inside these centres will ultimately end up.

The timeline accelerates from here. The final version of the law will now be discussed between the Parliament and EU member states. The negotiation is expected to be smooth, as there are no substantial differences between the two texts.