EU strikes migration deal for more deportations and detention centers abroad

Here is the latest breaking news from around the world: Europe EU strikes migration deal for more deportations and detention centers abroad June 2, 20265:17 AM ET By The Associated Press 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 hide caption toggle caption 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. mayors team up with European counterparts to fight authoritarianism "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.

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.

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Sponsor Message "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.

The development has drawn wide international attention, with diplomatic circles watching closely.