Asylum-seekers whose bid to live in the European Union has been rejected could be detained for up to 18 months under a new law approved by the bloc's 27 governments.
The so-called returns directive sets common rules across the Union for the treatment of failed asylum-seekers prior to their expulsion from EU territory. Its most controversial provision is that it allows for those awaiting deportation to be locked up for a maximum of 18 months.
Human rights activists fear that people who have not committed any offence will be routinely held for lengthy periods as a result.
The law was rubber-stamped by the EU's justice and interior ministers at a Jun. 5-6 meeting. However, it will have to be endorsed by the European Parliament, the bloc's only directly elected institution, before it can come into effect. Members of the Parliament (MEPs) are due to decide what stance to take on it Jun. 18.
More than 220 camps for detaining asylum-seekers are currently in operation across the EU; in total, they have a capacity for holding 30,000 people. While many EU countries allow for detention of between 12 and 18 months, some states such as Britain, the Netherlands, Greece and Denmark stipulate no maximum length of detention. In Malta, many asylum-seekers were found to have been held for five years, according to a 2006 study.