In March 2025, the European Commission presented a text aimed at increasing the number of expulsions, which Members of the European Parliament will vote on during a first vote on Monday. This would allow:
– Member states to open migrant centers in countries outside the EU, with the idea of sending people whose asylum application has been rejected and who are facing an obligation to leave the territory: the so-called “return hubs.”
– Stricter rules and sanctions for rejected asylum seekers refusing to leave the EU territory, such as confiscation of identity documents, detention, and extended entry bans.
– Mutual recognition of decisions made by a specific member state, with the idea being, for example, that a decision made in France could apply in Spain and vice versa.
Like an echo of the American ICE
These measures have been criticized by migrant protection associations, who are concerned about potential human rights violations. Silvia Carta of PICUM warns: “They authorize the creation of expulsion centers in countries where these people have never set foot and will result in increased surveillance and discrimination.” This Brussels-based NGO compares the European project to the “violent” policies carried out by the American immigration police, ICE, in the United States.
Several countries, including France and Spain, are skeptical about the effectiveness of these return centers, which have been experimented with in the past without much success.
> Euro-MP RN Fabrice Leggeri welcomed this, seeing it as proof that “there is no longer a sanitary cordon” in the European Parliament between the right and the far-right.
Other member states, like Germany, Austria, and the Scandinavian countries, argue that their goal is primarily deterrent: they hope to discourage migrants from attempting to settle in Europe due to potential sanctions they may face.
Vote possible on Thursday
These measures have been the subject of fierce battles in the European Parliament. A centrist MEP tasked with finding a compromise between several groups of the pro-European majority was ultimately outflanked on the right: an alliance from the right to the far-right reached a last-minute agreement on an alternative text that is expected to be validated in committee on Monday evening before a plenary vote, possibly as soon as Thursday.
Former head of the European border agency Frontex, MEP Fabrice Leggeri, from the French far-right party Rassemblement National (RN), welcomed this, seeing it as proof that “there is no longer a sanitary cordon” in the European Parliament between the right and the far-right. Right-wing coalitions have indeed multiplied in recent months, both to oppose certain environmental measures and to push for strong anti-immigration measures in Parliament.
