EU Parliament votes to ramp up deportations as rightwing MEPs chant 'send them back' — democratic will or human rights black hole?
The European Parliament voted 418 to 218 to approve sweeping new measures to increase deportations of undocumented people across the EU — the largest such vote in years. Rightwing MEPs celebrated by chanting 'send them back', prompting progressive lawmakers to respond with cries of 'shame on you.' The plans would allow migrants to be detained for up to two years and deported to offshore centres that critics have called potential 'human rights black holes.' Amnesty International described the measures as 'absurd, cruel and discriminatory.' Sixteen UN experts recently identified over a dozen ways the plans could violate international human rights law.
The summary above is a neutral framing. Below, each side reports the same story in its own words — judge for yourself.
A large majority of 418 MEPs voted for the new deportation framework, reflecting what supporters describe as the democratic will of EU citizens who have consistently backed stricter immigration enforcement in election after election. Rightwing lawmakers celebrated the vote as a long-overdue reckoning with irregular migration — chanting 'send them back' as an expression of what they say is a legitimate policy position, not a slur. Supporters argue that the EU must be able to detain and remove people who have no legal right to remain, and that long-term detention and offshore processing are tools other democracies already use. Without effective deportation, they say, EU asylum and migration law is unenforceable.
Progressive MEPs responded to the 'send them back' chants with cries of 'shame on you' — echoing the verdict of human rights organisations. Amnesty International France called the plans 'absurd, cruel and discriminatory.' Sixteen UN human rights experts have outlined more than a dozen ways the measures could violate international law — including provisions for detention of up to two years without charge, and deportation to offshore centres that critics describe as potential 'human rights black holes.' Critics argue the measures adopt the rhetoric and tools of far-right movements, criminalise migration instead of managing it, and risk creating a permanent class of people held without recourse in centres beyond EU accountability.
