Migrant families and minors could end up jailed for two years under new deportation rules voted through by a rightwing faction of European lawmakers, in what some critics say is reminiscent of Donald Trump\u2019s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) paramilitary.<\/p>\n
The vote on the return regulation on Monday (9 March) in the European Parliament\u2019s civil liberties committee also sets the legal stage for likely deportation facilities abroad, as the European Union cracks down on asylum <\/a>and rolls back its commitment to refugees.<\/a><\/p>\n The centre-right European People\u2019s Party (EPP) plus the far-right faction<\/a> managed to squeeze the bill through the committee with 41 in favour and 32 against, with one abstention.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is yet another recognition of the Albania model,\u201d said Alessandro Ciriani, a far-right Italian MEP with the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR), in reference to the controversial 2023 agreement between Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni and Albania<\/a> to process asylum seekers outside the EU.<\/p>\n French MEP Fran\u00e7ois-Xavier Bellamy of the EPP complained that only one-in-five people ordered to leave actually go home.<\/p>\n But this oft-cited \u201cone-in-five\u201d figure, a statistic also repeatedly invoked by EU migration commissioner Magnus Brunner, paints a misleading picture.<\/p>\n According to Arjen Leerkes, a professor at Maastricht University, some return decisions are counted twice, while others leave voluntarily <\/a>without ever being registered as a return.<\/p>\n New era of crackdowns<\/p>\n Figures aside, the implications of Monday\u2019s vote have alarmed pro-rights campaigners and progressive left politicians who say the bill will usher in a new era of crackdowns against migrants.<\/p>\n M\u00e9lissa Camara, a French MEP with the Greens, said the text reflects a racist and populist ideology.<\/p>\n Tineke Strik, another Green MEP from the Netherlands, said the bill will enable ICE-style structures and deportations<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThe EPP needs to have a serious rethink before the plenary vote,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n The committee is now expected to announce its negotiating mandate at the plenary session on Wednesday (11 March).<\/p>\n Political groups that oppose it will be able to table a challenge. If they do, a vote on whether to reopen the mandate could be held in plenary on Thursday (12 March) or later this month during the mini-plenary in Brussels.<\/p>\n Civil rights campaigners are hoping to convince enough MEPs to reject the bill in the plenary amid warnings it would pave the way for raids, detention and deportations of families, with little regard for their personal circumstances or where they come from.<\/p>\n \u201cInstead of investing in rights and protection, the EU is choosing to spend public money on expanding a system of enforcement and militarisation, both within Europe and beyond its borders,\u201d said Sarah Chander, director of Equinox Initiative for Racial Justice<\/a>.<\/p>\n