EU parliament backs law allowing offshore detention centres

The European Parliament approved on Wednesday an overhaul of migration policy aimed at ramping up deportations and allowing member states to set up detention centres abroad, in what critics describe as a cruel system that weakens safeguards for asylum seekers.



The move underlines the rise in anti-immigration sentiment across the European Union over the past decade that has broadened popular support for far-right parties.



The text, which requires final formal approval from the 27 EU member governments, marks a sharp hardening of EU migration policy that has taken shape since an influx of over a million refugees and migrants in 2015-16.



"The Return Regulation will provide the necessary tools to make returns more efficient, with faster and more effective procedures," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a letter on Tuesday addressed to member states ahead of a meeting of EU leaders in Brussels.