This Wednesday, the European Parliament approved the Return Regulation, by 418 votes in favour, 218 against, and 30 abstentions. The session ended with fervent applause from the right wing of the hemicycle, which was shouting with overflowing joy “send them back!” (send them back!) The spectacle brought to mind a coven. As the United States under Trump reminds us daily, contemporary covens are beginning to take place also, or especially, within democratic institutions themselves. But what exactly were they celebrating?In the political sphere, the approval of the regulation represents the victory of those who advocated for a "tougher" migration policy, which nowadays is synonymous with illiberal. In May 2024, a few weeks after the approval of the European Pact on Migration and Asylum, seventeen European states signed a letter calling for "innovative" solutions and "paradigm shifts," especially to facilitate and accelerate deportations. Two years later, with the approval of the Regulation, these proposals, which until recently the European Commission itself considered contrary to EU law, have become a reality.In terms of concrete measures, the Return Regulation represents an acceleration of a trend that has been consolidating for some time: detection operations within EU territory, extended detention periods (increasing from six months to two years, extendable), detention and deportation of minors, forced deportations in a wide range of cases, penalties for lack of cooperation (including for those persons legally not deportable), and entry bans that can reach 10 years or more.
Detection within the territory is not a minor issue: it can involve identity checks in public spaces, labor inspections with a migratory focus, home searches, and interventions in premises of associations that help migrants, or even in health centers. Just like in the pact, these are deliberately vague provisions that open a framework of possibilities for each of the member states to use, to a greater or lesser extent.But the flagship measure of the regulation, at least in the media, are the so-called return hubs (return centers). Until now, a person could only be deported to their own country, to a country they had passed through, or to a country they had explicitly agreed to go to. With the regulation, the possibility opens up for people to be deported to any country that simply agrees to host them. Parties opposed to these centers define them as "small guantánamos" outside of all control. The far-right, in the words of Swedish MEP Charlie Weimers, hopes they will end up being "big beautiful" deportation centers. The adjectives are undoubtedly borrowed from Trump.The regulation has already been approved, but many doubts remain. The main one continues to be compliance with legality. As the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights warned, although return centers are not entirely illegal, the guarantees required by EU law and international law are so strict that in practice it will remain difficult for anyone to be legally transferred. In other words, the only way these centers can function is with limited or practically non-existent legal scrutiny.
Hence the Polish presidency of the Council pointed out in February 2025 that the preferred approach was informal solutions that "avoided judicial scrutiny". This is not a new strategy: the agreement between the European Union and Turkey (2016) was formally a "press release", which meant that the Court of Justice of Luxembourg (2017) declared itself incompetent to assess it. Physical distance, with countries considered remote and outside public and judicial scrutiny, is expected to do the rest.Although the Regulation has been approved, the end of this story is yet to be written. Much will depend on the capacity of human rights organizations, through social mobilization and strategic litigation. It is a difficult, long path that requires many resources, but which until now has also been accompanied by certain successes. The judiciary and its capacity to remain independent will also be key.What we can be sure of is that we are entering a world of increasing surveillance and control where racialized communities will bear the brunt. This is how the coven of deportations can end up jumping from parliaments to the streets, to workplaces, to homes or to churches. It's not science fiction. Trump's ICE and the images of insurgent cities like Minneapolis are the (admittedly dystopian) proof that it's already here.
