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The European Union is rolling out new migration rules that broaden enforcement powers to track, raid and deport migrants to “return hubs” in third countries, including in Africa, in measures critics say resemble approaches promoted in the United States by President Donald Trump. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the EU is acting to prevent a repeat of the 2015 crisis, when about 1 million people arrived seeking asylum, and the bloc’s “Pact on Migration and Asylum” is scheduled to take effect June 12.
Von der Leyen said, “We have learnt the lessons of the past. And today, we are better equipped,” framing the policy shift as a readiness response to prior pressures on asylum systems. The new rules follow tightening migration policies in several European countries after right-wing parties took power in 2024.
A key element of the EU’s plan is the creation of “return hubs” in third countries, which would allow the bloc to move beyond processing asylum claims at EU borders and into systems designed to send people back after rejections. In parallel, European governments have sought to expand the use of detention, including drawing on Italy’s approach under Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
Italy already operates two migrant detention centers for rejected asylum-seekers in Albania under Meloni’s “tough on migration” stance, according to a lawmaker Rachele Scarpa. Scarpa said one center currently holds at least 90 migrants and that people she met during a recent visit were “confused and scared,” describing conditions that underscore how detention is being used as a tool in enforcement and removals.
Meloni’s Cabinet also approved an anti-immigration package that would allow the navy to halt vessels in international waters for up to six months if they are deemed a threat to public order. The package would return intercepted migrants to countries of origin or third countries and speed up deportations of foreign nationals convicted of crimes, aligning deterrence and removal operations with a longer enforcement runway outside territorial borders.
Researchers and lawmakers described an EU-wide push to replicate portions of these arrangements through agreements for deportation centers among groups of member states. Bernd Parusel, a researcher at the Swedish Institute for European Policy Studies, said an “informal group” of EU nations including Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Denmark and Greece was pursuing deportation center agreements, and Tineke Strik, a Dutch member of the European Parliament, said the group was speaking with Kenya. Strik said the plan is similar to Trump’s deals with nations such as El Salvador to take in deported migrants.
The EU measures are taking shape as some politicians across Europe have praised Trump-style tactics, while critics warn of legal and rights violations at the border. During the Winter Olympics in Italy, protests erupted after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents provided security to the U.S. delegation, but some Europeans praised the ICE actions and called for deportation-focused police units.
The new EU crackdown plans are also being debated against the role of Frontex, the EU’s border agency. After Belgium passed a law in 2024 allowing Frontex operations inside the country, activists warned it could join raids. Frontex spokesperson Chris Borowski said the agency’s mandate covers borders and that its current role in voluntary or involuntary returns includes “coordinating flights, helping with travel documents and making sure fundamental rights are respected throughout the process.”
As the EU tightens rules, rights groups say Europe’s enforcement tactics are already expanding in ways that stress legal protections. The EU and international law include a non-refoulement principle that prohibits returning someone to a country where they would face persecution, but European enforcement includes “pushbacks,” in which people trying to cross are forced back across a border without access to asylum procedures.
A February report by a group of humanitarian organizations said authorities in Europe carry out an average of 221 pushbacks a day and recorded more than 80,000 pushbacks in 2025, mostly in Italy, Poland, Bulgaria and Latvia. The report described people being subjected to beatings, attacks by police dogs, forced stripping, forced river crossings and theft of personal belongings, including people in critical medical condition.
Flor Didden, a migration policy expert at the Belgian human rights group 11.11.11, compared European practices to U.S. enforcement. He said, “Men, women and children — including individuals in critical medical condition — are routinely subjected to beatings, attacks by police dogs, forced stripping, forced river crossings and theft of personal belongings,” citing the report, and added that some European authorities have used tactics that include wearing masks.
Human rights groups also said the EU is moving toward broader surveillance and weaker legal protections. They described increased use of drones, thermal cameras and satellites to monitor people on the move, and Amnesty International’s Olivia Sundberg Diez said Europe retains more protections for vulnerable migrants than the United States while sharing much of the political momentum toward harsher measures. Sundberg Diez said, “There’s a level of institutions’ and courts’ independence and human rights compliance in Europe that you can’t disregard,” while adding that “the fundamental political impulse is the same, and I worry that the human consequences will be the same.”
In a letter to EU institutions in February from 88 nonprofit groups, including the Brussels-based Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants, the groups said the EU’s new migration regulations would allow more police raids in private homes and public spaces and more use of surveillance and racial profiling. Michele LeVoy, the platform’s director, said, “We cannot be outraged by ICE in the United States while also supporting these practices in Europe.”