THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT is set to give final approval on Wednesday to stricter migration rules that will grant member states broader powers to detain irregular arrivals and allow for the creation of deportation centres outside the bloc.

The vote in Strasbourg is one of the last hurdles for a reform that has arisen following political pressure on Brussels and member states to curb migration.

The plans have also been seen a division open up between Irish government supporting MEPs in Strasbourg.

This is because the new text allows countries to open “return hubs” outside the EU’s borders, where migrants with no right to stay could be sent, among the core concerns.

Fine Gael’s Regina Doherty said the moves will mean a “very fair but firm system”, while Fianna Fáil’s Barry Andrews slammed the measures as “ICE-style” measures that could see unaccompanied children detained and monitored in countries with poor human rights records.

Protests last November outside a centre built to hold people seeking asylum in Albania, on behalf of Italy, but which has mainly lain empty since due to legal challenges. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

Doherty has confirmed on Wednesday that she will vote in favour of the EU Returns Regulation when it comes before the European Parliament today.

Speaking on Morning Ireland on RTÉ Radio One, Doherty said it was about creating a “very fair but firm system” that she said would protect the people that need protection, but also “ensure that the legal process is respected” by asylum applicants.

The Dublin MEP said this would be done by creating one set of uniform rules that all member states are signed up to, adding that “we can’t have what we had in the past, of one person leaving one country and going to another European country and starting all over again”.

On the same programme, Andrews questioned whether the policy will result in human rights abuses, while also piling on the pressure on EU budgets.

 He said:

I ask myself, will this actually be a deterrent? Will it be value for money for EU taxpayers, and will it meet our own minimum human rights standards? On each of these questions it’s pointing me towards voting against this.

He further argued that there is little supporting evidence of where similar efforts made by the UK and Australia to detain people in third countries actually worked, as he criticised today’s vote due to it being likely to be passed by “a far-right majority” in the parliament.

Fianna Fáil is a member of the liberal centrist Renew group in Strasbourg, while Fine Gael is a member of the ruling centre-right European People’s Party. The latter has been criticised over recent years for increasingly cutting deals with far-right politicians in parliament on issues such as migration.

Andrews further argued deportation numbers may be “underestimated because people are leaving voluntarily”, or are subject to multiple deportation notices.

In response to the accusations of potential human rights abuses in some third countries that will detain asylum seekers under the rules, Doherty accused Andrews of “misinformation” and said that an ICE-style arrangement is “not how we do business in the EU”.

Asked what countries may be involved in holding asylum seekers on behalf of EU members, Doherty said we are not yet at that stage.

“All the regulation does today is give legal provisions for people to engage with third countries if they so wish,” she said.

The Fine Gael MEP added that she believed “very few counties” will pursue the third country policy and that it will only come up where “there is no further option”.

Several EU countries explore return hub option

Human rights groups have strongly criticised the measure but Denmark, Austria, Greece, Germany, the Netherlands and others have already been exploring options to set up hubs.

Until recently a fringe idea, the plan got further endorsement on Tuesday, when a majority of EU nations agreed to seek to secure EU money to run such centres in a move opposed by France and Spain.

With migrant arrivals down in 2025, the focus in Brussels has turned to improving the repatriation system, which currently sees less than 30% of people ordered to leave actually returned to their country of origin.

“This regulation tells everybody that it is us and not the smugglers deciding who can stay in the European Union and who must leave,” said Magnus Brunner, the EU’s commissioner for migration.

Besides return hubs, the new measures establish a strict obligation for migrants subject to expulsion to leave and cooperate with authorities to that end.

Those who do not, or who pose a security risk or are thought to be at risk of absconding, can be detained for up to two years.

Under the new rules authorities would be allowed to search third-country nationals, their homes or other “relevant premises” and seize personal belongings, in their push to ensure the return of irregular migrants.

After winning parliamentary approval the law will need a formal green light from member states – which have already provisionally endorsed it – before coming into force.

Most new measures will apply immediately after that and some provisions 12 months later.