Statewatch, Deportation Union: Rights, accountability, and the EU’s push to increased forced removals (United Kingdom: Statewatch, 2020).
“The power available to states to deport non-citizens deemed unwanted, undesirable or unnecessary – the ‘deportation power’ – is, in historical terms, relatively recent, having only come into being around the turn of the 20th century. Nevertheless, like many other punitive inventions of that era,
it remains with us and continues to morph and expand in novel and dangerous ways. European nation-states have developed extensive sets of laws, policies, norms, practices and institutions concerned with regulating deportations, which are seen as a key part of contemporary migration policies. In recent years, such developments have taken on increasing
prominence at EU level – the subject of this report.
Deportation Union provides a critical examination of recently introduced and forthcoming EU measures designed to increase the number of deportations carried out by national authorities and the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, Frontex. It focuses on three key areas: attempts to
reduce or eliminate rights and protections in the law governing deportations; the expansion and interconnection of EU databases and information systems; and the increased budget, powers and personnel awarded to Frontex.”
