How the EU is building a dystopian, surveillance-driven, deportation machine

On 11 March 2025, the European Commission proposed a sweeping overhaul of EU return rules: the new ‘Returns Regulation’ – more aptly described by civil society as a Deportation Regulation.

It builds on decades of expansion of the EU’s migration databases and surveillance architecture — from Eurodac to the Schengen Information System — culminating in what can only be described as a digital deportation machine.

Like much recent EU migration legislation, the proposal was presented without a comprehensive fundamental rights impact assessment. Sixteen UN experts have already raised concerns about its compatibility with international law. Yet EU institutions are rushing the file through the legislative process.

Europe cannot credibly criticise authoritarian excess abroad while constructing its own dystopian deportation machine at home.