On 11 March 2025, the European Commission unveiled a proposal for a new Return Regulation, meant to replace the existing Return Directive. Behind this technocratic title, however, the proposal marks a deep and dangerous shift in EU migration policy — one that prioritises deportation, detention, and surveillance over protection, dignity, and rights.
Avocats Sans Frontières (ASF) has joined more than 250 civil society organisations in a joint statement calling for the proposal’s withdrawal and urging the European Parliament and Council of the EU to reject it.
A regulation built on coercion and exclusion
The proposed “Deportation Regulation” would expand states’ powers to detain, surveil and deport people, including to countries where they have no prior ties. It introduces measures that would make detention the norm, extend its maximum duration, and even allow for offshore detention centres outside EU territory.
It also imposes new obligations on states to “detect” people living irregularly, paving the way for increased racial profiling, data sharing, and surveillance of migrant communities. At the same time, it removes crucial appeal rights and procedural safeguards, undermining access to justice and the right to an effective remedy.
A broader shift in EU migration policy
This proposal is part of a wider and worrying trend within EU migration governance: framing human mobility as a threat rather than a social phenomenon that needs to be dealt with humanely and with an approach based on human rights.
Instead of addressing the structural causes of migration or supporting inclusion, the EU is investing in punitive mechanisms of control—detention, deportation, externalisation—that dehumanise migrants and erode fundamental rights.
ASF’s position
ASF stands firmly against the criminalisation of migration and the systematic weakening of human rights standards in Europe. We believe that migration policy should be grounded in protection, solidarity and inclusion, not punishment.
As the joint statement highlights, human rights impact assessments, evidence-based policymaking and meaningful consultation are essential prerequisites for any reform in this area. The proposed Regulation fails on all these counts.
Read and support the joint statement
The full joint statement – signed by over 250 organisations across Europe – sets out in detail the rights violations and systemic risks inherent in this proposal.