The European Parliament’s vote to approve sweeping new return rules on 17 June was met with a scene that laid bare the ascendant influence of the far right in shaping the continent’s migration policy. As the result flashed up — 418 in favour, 218 against, 30 abstentions — hardline nationalist MEPs rose to their feet, pumping fists and chanting “Send them back!” The display, which one Swedish left-wing parliamentarian branded “pure racism”, marked the culmination of a decade-long overhaul of the EU’s asylum architecture. The new Returns Regulation, swiftly dubbed a “deportation regulation” by critics, entered force alongside the broader Common European Asylum System, which had been activated just days earlier on 12 June.

The regulation’s most contentious innovation is the creation of “return hubs”: detention centres located in non-EU countries where rejected asylum seekers can be held pending final expulsion. Member states will also gain the power to detain individuals for up to 24 months on grounds of flight risk or security threat, to conduct raids on private homes, and to seize electronic devices for identification purposes. Migrants will be legally obliged to cooperate with authorities. Viewed from Berlin, the measures have strong backing: German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt is among the prominent advocates, while in Rome, the ruling Brothers of Italy party celebrated the vote as delivering “remigration with facts”. Yet human rights organisations, including Amnesty International, have warned that the return hubs risk creating zones of legal limbo with inhumane conditions, potentially in countries such as Uganda.

The political reaction across the Union exposed a deep fracture. Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, arriving at a European Council summit in Brussels, declared bluntly that the bloc was “transmitting a wrong message” and that Madrid would not support the new crackdown. His opposition highlighted the growing isolation of the centre-left as the mainstream conservative European People’s Party forged an informal alliance with far-right groups to push the legislation through. Even within the winning coalition, unease surfaced. Sweden’s Migration Minister Johan Forssell, a Moderate, condemned the far-right chants as “deeply unworthy and inappropriate”, despite his own party having voted in favour of the law. The episode, as a Dutch daily observed, revealed how universal human rights — the Union’s foundational promise — are retreating before a political imperative to appear uncompromising on migration.

The new powers are likely to reshape the EU’s relationship with neighbouring transit countries and deepen the bloc’s reliance on externalisation. Analysts in Brussels note that the return hubs concept, while legally framed as voluntary cooperation with third states, carries echoes of Australia’s offshore processing model and raises questions about jurisdiction and accountability. The regulation’s supporters argue it will restore order to a broken system; its detractors see a moral and legal regression. As implementation begins, the tension between the Union’s self-image as a rights-based community and the raw politics of deterrence will only intensify, with the far right already claiming the vote as a historic victory.