Momentum backs European Democrats' stand against EU deportation centres

Momentum has backed the European Democratic Party's vote against the European Union's new migration law, a measure the party says will let member states deport people to countries they have never set foot in.

"Europe is abandoning its foundational values for populist extremes. Detention without limit, families sent to countries they have never seen, and sweeping home raids dressed up as enforcement have no place in a modern democracy," Momentum General Secretary Mark Camilleri Gambin said.

He pointed out that both the Nationalist MEPs are marching in lockstep with the EPP's rightward shift, and the Labour MEPs abandoning their supposed socialist principles have failed Malta and Europe. "The European Democratic Party was right to refuse, and Momentum is proud to stand with our European family in defending the values Europe is meant to be built on."

The European Parliament approved the new Return Regulation on 17 June, in what Momentum called the toughest shift in EU migration policy in decades. The law passed by 418 votes to 218, with 30 abstentions.

It was carried by the centre-right European People's Party voting alongside the hard and far right, namely the European Conservatives and Reformists, the Patriots for Europe and Europe of Sovereign Nations, as well as all of Malta's six MEPs.

Momentum said that alliance is fast becoming the new normal in Strasbourg whenever migration is on the agenda. The European Democratic Party, Momentum's European family, voted against it.

The law lets member states set up deportation centres outside the EU, so-called return hubs, in countries migrants have never visited, and families with children can be sent there. It stretches detention from six months to two years, raises entry bans to ten years and to life in some cases, and ends the automatic suspension of a deportation while an appeal is still being heard. It also lets authorities search the homes of irregular migrants.

Momentum said NGOs and civil society groups have compared these powers to the raids carried out by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, adding that an ICE-style approach has no place in Europe.

Momentum said it does not pretend migration is simple, describing it as a real and serious challenge that falls hardest on frontline states like Malta.

The party said the answer is not to outsource the issue to countries outside the EU and look the other way, but genuine shared responsibility, with every member state carrying its fair part rather than leaving those at the border to cope alone.

The party said this was the direction it had warned against during the election. Its 'Bidla ta' Vera' manifesto set out a humane, rights-based migration framework, with an end to arbitrary detention and procedural safeguards for everyone who arrives.

It committed Momentum to oppose any weakening of the Council of Europe's Human Rights Convention, especially on migration, to uphold international humanitarian and human rights law, and to keep human rights at the centre of every foreign policy decision Malta makes.

Momentum said it supports a firm but fair system in which those who commit serious offences face swift repatriation, but said it would not accept a blanket policy grounded in fear and arbitrary detention