Europe pivots to deportation centers under new Return Regulation

The EU’s new Return Regulation moves Europe toward detaining and deporting migrants in third countries, potentially hosting facilities in Africa or Asia. While Brussels says the framework will boost removals of rejected asylum-seekers and deter irregular arrivals, NGOs warn it could trap hundreds of thousands of people in detention for up to 30 months, with risks including family separations and rights violations. The practical details—where centers will be located, how long people can be held, and how children’s education will be safeguarded—remain unresolved, and past attempts (like Italy’s Albania model) have struggled to deliver results.