Massive expansion of immigration detention under new EU deportation rules

The EU’s new Return Regulation, adopted on 1 October 2026, is presented as a way to speed up and standardise deportations. Its critics argue that it instead makes immigration control more coercive by expanding detention, widening deportation powers and introducing surveillance-based “alternatives” that may reproduce detention outside formal facilities. Viewed alongside the EU Migration and Asylum Pact and plans to digitise deportations and expand Frontex’s role, the regulation reflects a broader shift toward control, detention and removal.

The regulation adds detention grounds including security concerns, identity checks, failure to cooperate and other grounds set by national law, many of them vaguely defined. A lack of stable housing, family ties or money can count as evidence of absconding risk, potentially penalising poverty and social exclusion. Maximum detention rises from 18 to 24 months, with a possible further six months; people labelled security risks face no fixed maximum and may be held through repeated judicial extensions. The rules also weaken safeguards and permit restrictions on outdoor access and visits, as well as stricter separation measures. These changes threaten to worsen existing problems, including limited access to healthcare, interpreters, lawyers and family contact, and increase the risk of arbitrary or prolonged detention, including for vulnerable people and children.