The EU is overhauling its migration policy to increase deportations and establish detention centers abroad, drawing comparisons to U.S. immigration practices under Trump.
Key points
EU is overhauling its migration policy
Focus on increasing deportations
Plans to build detention centers abroad
Rights groups compare it to Trump-era policies
Police conduct a search operation at a makeshift camp of migrants who want to cross the English Channel to Britain near Dunkirk, northern France, Wednesday, May 27, 2026.
Police conduct a search operation at a makeshift camp of migrants who want to cross the English Channel to Britain near Dunkirk, northern France, Wednesday, May 27, 2026.
Jean-Francois Badias/AP
Jean-Francois Badias/AP
BRUSSELS — The European Union has moved forward with a vast overhaul of its migration policy, aiming to ramp up deportations and ink controversial deals to build detention centers abroad, in what rights groups compare to the Trump administration's aggressive immigration policies.
"The new regulation will speed up the return process and increase returns of persons who have no legal right to stay in the EU," said Nicholas Ioannides, deputy migration minister for Cyprus, which holds the rotating presidency of the 27-nation bloc.
Q&A
What changes are being made to the EU migration policy?
The EU is implementing a significant overhaul that focuses on ramping up deportations and creating detention centers in other countries.
How does the EU's new migration policy compare to U.S. policies?
Rights groups have likened the EU's approach to the aggressive immigration policies of the Trump administration in the U.S.
What are the intended outcomes of the EU's migration policy changes?
The changes aim to manage migration more effectively by increasing deportations and reducing the number of migrants entering EU countries.
Where will the new detention centers be located?
The EU plans to establish detention centers abroad, although specific locations have not been detailed in the announcement.
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The deal was struck between the EU's three main institutions — the European Commission, the European Council and European Parliament — during a so-called "trilogue" Monday evening.
Critics compared the regulation to the immigration strategy of the Trump administration, which has struck a series of secretive agreements with nations around the world to deport thousands of people to countries that are not their own. The United Kingdom also planned to deport migrants to Rwanda, but the plan was bogged down in legal red tape and the new government dropped the plan as soon as it came into power.
"The Regulation is going to create a draconian detention and deportation machine," said Silvia Carter, spokesperson for the Brussels-based Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants.
"Across the Atlantic, we see the violence and fear created by ICE's brutal immigration enforcement. Europe should be learning from the harms of that model, not building its own version of it."
The provisional agreement will now head to the EU lawmakers and heads of state, where approval will likely be swift.
EU member nations will soon be able to set up bilateral deals with countries outside the bloc to build deportation centers. At least five EU nations — Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Denmark and Greece — are already in talks with third countries, mostly in Africa, to host "return hubs" on the model of Italy's detention deal with Albania.
The EU has continually tightened migration policies after right-wing parties took power in some countries in 2024. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, from the center-right European People's Party coalition, has said that the new measures will prevent a repeat of the 2015 crisis caused by Syria's civil war, when about 1 million people arrived to seek asylum.
Fueled by people fleeing conflict and poverty across Africa and the Middle East, the 2015 refugee crisis and successive years of irregular migration to Europe have driven a rightward shift in the bloc's politics not unlike the anti-immigrant sentiment that buoyed a " red wave " in the 2024 election in the United States.
Center-right political groups allied with the far-right to overcome opposition from centrist and left-wing parties, said Mélissa Camara, a French lawmaker and member of the Greens who called the deal "a historic setback" for human rights in the bloc.
"The legalization of return hubs outside the European Union, the green light for the detention of minors, home visits inspired by ICE practices: the legal arsenal serving a xenophobic ideology is now complete," she said.
Activist groups warned the legislation would cut deep into the protections granted by the EU fundamental charter on human rights and expose people to risks outside the bloc.
"This deal will give governments much broader powers to detain and deport people," said Marta Welander, a spokesperson for the International Rescue Committee. "It looks set to normalize immigration raids, expand the use of detention in prison-like facilities outside EU territory that are essentially legal black holes, and increase the risk of people being deported to countries where they could face persecution, torture or worse."
