The agreement reached on Monday would allow EU countries to transfer rejected asylum seekers to third countries if they cannot be returned to their countries of origin. The regulation also introduces stricter rules on the treatment of illegal migrants, especially those considered a security risk.
These include the possibility of home searches, cuts to welfare benefits, confiscation of documents and extended detention periods which would be extended from six months to two and a half years. Entry bans would also be increased from five to ten years in most cases, with lifelong bans possible.
“For years, Europe sent the worst possible message: even if you didn’t have the right to stay, the chances were high that nothing would happen. That era is ending. If you don’t have the right to stay in Europe, you will have to leave,” French MEP Francois-Xavier Bellamy, who represented the European People’s Party in the negotiations, told Politico.
The agreement still requires formal approval by EU governments and the European Parliament before it can enter into force.
The proposal was initially made by the European Commission last year in response to growing dissatisfaction with a decade-long influx of illegal immigrants, which has remained one of Europe’s most divisive political issues since 2015 when around a million people entered the EU.
In 2025, the EU’s migrant population reached a record 64.2 million, including some 46.7 million people born outside the bloc, according to a recent Berlin-based study using Eurostat and UN data.
Although Brussels and countries like Germany and Sweden initially embraced an open-door approach to potential asylum seekers, a number of EU states, including Austria, Denmark, the Netherlands and Greece, have since taken steps to tighten asylum rules and pushed forward the establishment of return centers outside the bloc.
Human rights groups and left-wing lawmakers have criticized the new EU rules, warning that they could expand detention, increase raids and expose rejected asylum seekers to unsafe conditions outside EU territory.
EU Migration Commissioner Magnus Brunner, on the other hand, welcomed the agreement, saying the bloc would have “more control over who can come to the EU, who can stay and who has to leave.”