AFP, Brussels

The EU reached a deal Monday on a new tightening of migration rules allowing for so-called “return hubs” to be set up outside the bloc, as countries seek to boost deportations.

European lawmakers and countries struck a provisional compromise on the reform, which was launched in response to political pressure to curb migration -- paving the way for its final approval.

“Today’s agreement shows that we are bringing our European house in order,” said Magnus Brunner, the European Union’s commissioner for migration. “With the new rules, we have more control over who can come to the EU, who can stay and who needs to leave.”

Criticised by rights groups, the new measures will notably allow nations to open centres outside the EU’s borders to which migrants whose asylum applications have been rejected could be sent.

They also establish a strict obligation for migrants subject to expulsion to leave and cooperate with authorities, envisaging harsher penalties, including detention, for those who refuse to do so.

“This deal will give governments much broader powers to detain and deport people,” said Marta Welander of the International Rescue Committee (IRC), an NGO. “It looks set to normalise immigration raids, expand the use of detention in prison-like facilities outside EU territory ... where they could face persecution, torture or worse.”