The European Parliament approves creating deportation centers for migrants outside the territory of the European Union

The vote represents a boost to the model tested by the Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, in its agreements with Albania. And it reveals once again the isolation in the EU of the Government of Pedro Sanchezwhose plan for mass regularization of migrants goes against the grain of community policy.

By 389 votes in favor, 206 against and 32 abstentions, the European Parliament has approved start formal negotiations with governments of the EU to close the final text of the regulation, thus rejecting the attempt by socialist, green and radical left groups to paralyze the process.

The vote has thus cracked the ‘grand coalition’ of popular, socialists and liberals that supports Ursula von der Leyen. The EPP has had the support of radical right groups in the European Parliament to carry out the regulation.

“We cannot advance a credible and effective migration policy if the return decisions are not fulfilled,” said PP MEP Javier Zarzalejos, president of the Civil Liberties commission of the European Parliament.

Zarzalejos has highlighted that this regulation “contradicts the immigration policy of the Government of Spainwhich opens the door to massive regularizations and shows a clear absence of a strategy to control irregular immigration.”

For their part, the European socialists maintain that the text approved by the European Parliament “is the result of a deeply worrying political alliance and opaque negotiations between the European People’s Party (EPP) and the extreme right”.

“It is more inspired by the policies of the Trump administration and an ICE-style deportation regime than by European values. But beyond that, ignores essential fundamental rights enshrined in our Chartersuch as the right to human dignity, freedom, asylum and an effective remedy,” they say in a statement.

“For a decade, EU migration policy has failed Europeans. Today, that changes. Patriots for Europe achieved the majority that made it possible. von der Leyen’s coalition could not deliver. We do,” highlighted this radical right group to which Vox is affiliated.

This Thursday’s vote in the European Parliament is not yet the end of the procedure. Parliament’s representatives must now negotiate the final version of the regulation with the EU governments, which already adopted their position in December 2025.

At that time, the Government of Pedro Sánchez was the only one that voted against this rule. The Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, expressed “serious legal, political and economic doubts” about the return centers and alleged that they could cause a “negative impact” on bilateral relations with key partners in preventing irregular migration at origin.