EU's deportations plan risks ICE-style enforcement, rights groups warn

"More than 70 rights organisations have called on the EU to reject a proposal aimed at increasing the deportation of undocumented people, warning that it risks turning everyday spaces, public services and community interactions into tools of ICE-style immigration enforcement. Last March, the European Commission laid out its proposal to increase deportations of people with no legal right to stay in the EU, including potentially sending them to offshore centres in non-EU countries."

"In a joint statement published on Monday, 75 rights organisations from across Europe said that the plans, if approved, could expand and normalise immigration raids and surveillance measures across the continent while also intensifying racial profiling. The plans would consolidate a punitive system, fuelled by far-right rhetoric and based on racialised suspicion, denunciation, detention and deportation, the statement said. Europe knows from its own history where systems of surveillance, scapegoating and control can lead."

"In announcing the proposals last year, the European Commission described them as effective and modern procedures that would increase the deportations of people denied asylum or who had overstayed their visa. Monday's statement highlighted the sweeping nature of the proposed measures, with plans to allow police to search private homes for undocumented people without a judicial order, as well as other relevant premises."

Seventy-five rights organisations urged rejection of an EU proposal that would increase deportations of undocumented people, including possible transfers to offshore centres. The draft regulation would expand enforcement powers and permit searches of private homes without judicial orders, alongside wider raids, workplace checks and surveillance. The measures risk normalising racialised suspicion, denunciation, detention and deportation, and intensifying racial profiling across public services and everyday interactions. The proposal follows far-right gains in the 2024 European Parliament and is promoted by the Commission as a means to boost returns, despite return rates remaining largely unchanged.

Read at www.theguardian.com