BRUSSELS — The European Union's Pact on Migration and Asylum goes into effect on June 12, expanding EU powers to track, raid and deport migrants to return hubs in third countries in Africa and elsewhere. The new measures adopt tactics of the Trump administration for deporting migrants.

"We have learnt the lessons of the past. And today, we are better equipped," said Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission.

The EU border service Frontex began sending officers on raids with Belgium's police in 2024 to detain and deport migrants. The EU's new migration regulations allow for more police raids in private homes and public spaces, according to a letter to EU institutions. The regulations also allow for more use of surveillance and racial profiling, the letter stated.

Italy operates two migrant detention centers for rejected asylum-seekers in Albania. A migrant detention center in Albania currently holds at least 90 migrants, according to a lawmaker.

An informal group of EU nations including Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Denmark and Greece is pursuing deportation center agreements, according to a researcher. EU member states are in talks with Kenya about deportation center agreements, according to a member of the European Parliament.

"European agents are brutalizing migrants just like in the U.S.," said Flor Didden, migration policy expert. "The images are shocking and the outrage is justified. But where is that same moral clarity when European border authorities abuse, rob and let people die?" Didden said. "We cannot be outraged by ICE in the United States while also supporting these practices in Europe," said Michele LeVoy, Director of the Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants.

The EU has tightened migration policies after right-wing parties took power in some member countries in 2024. In 2015, about one million people arrived in the EU to seek asylum due to Syria's civil war. Under the principle of non-refoulement in EU and international law, a person cannot be returned to a country where they would face persecution.

The EU spends millions of dollars to deter migrants before they reach its shores and has supported tens of thousands of Africans returning home, voluntarily or by force.