# EU Parliament approves stricter migration law with return hubs and wider detention powers
*Event date: 2026-06-17*
The European Parliament has approved a major overhaul of the bloc’s return rules, giving final backing to a law that would speed up deportations and expand the powers available to EU states when dealing with people found to have no legal right to remain.
The vote marks one of the sharpest shifts in EU migration policy in years. According to the evidence supplied in the packet, the new regulation passed with support from centre-right lawmakers and parts of the far right, underscoring how migration has become a defining issue in the parliament’s current balance of power.
At the centre of the law is the idea of so-called return hubs. These would allow EU governments to strike arrangements with non-EU countries and move some migrants to deportation facilities outside the bloc. The hubs could function as temporary transit sites while people await removal, but the reporting also says they could be used for longer stays. That prospect has drawn criticism from rights groups and lawmakers on the left, who argue the measure risks normalising practices that would once have been politically unthinkable inside the EU.
The approved text also widens the legal tools available to authorities. It allows searches of a migrant’s place of residence or other relevant premises, introduces longer detention periods and toughens entry bans. The law raises the maximum detention period from six months to two years, with a possible six-month extension, and provides for unlimited detention in cases where a person is deemed a security risk.
Entry bans would also become significantly stricter. In most cases they would rise from five years to ten years, with the possibility of lifetime bans for people considered a security risk. The regulation further changes the appeals process by removing the automatic suspension of deportation orders while legal challenges are pending. Courts would instead decide case by case whether enforcement should be paused.
The law was not limited to a single policy tweak. It also reflects a broader shift in the parliament, where the centre-right European People’s Party has increasingly relied on votes from right-wing and far-right blocs to secure hardline migration measures. The evidence packet says the EPP aligned again with the European Conservatives and Reformists, the Patriots for Europe and Europe of Sovereign Nations, while some Renew Europe members also backed the bill.
Supporters cast the law as a necessary response to irregular migration and a way to make returns more effective. Critics warned that it could weaken fundamental rights, especially if people are held for long periods in hubs outside EU territory with limited safeguards or uncertain prospects for onward return.
The final result in parliament confirms that migration remains one of the most politically charged issues in Europe. It also suggests the right-leaning majority that has emerged on the topic is no longer a temporary alignment, but a practical voting coalition capable of shaping the bloc’s long-term policy direction.
