(CN) — Europe marked a major anti-immigrant shift on Wednesday with the passage of a controversial immigration law in France and the announcement of a European Union deal that allows faster deportations, both of which were blessed by far-right parties.
Across Europe, mainstream parties are adopting a tougher approach on migrants in response to a surge in support for far-right forces advocating anti-immigrant policies. Polls suggest far-right parties will do very well in European Parliament elections next June as more voters express unease over immigration.
Late Tuesday, France's National Assembly passed an immigration bill that was hailed by Marine Le Pen, the far-right leader of National Rally, as a “great ideological victory.”
Under the law, it will be harder for the children of immigrants to obtain French citizenship, migrants will have to wait much longer before they can access to certain welfare benefits, migration quotas will be implemented and illegal immigrants will be expelled more easily.
The law was blasted by left-wing politicians and human rights groups.
Hours later, news came out of Brussels that a pact on dealing with asylum claims and migrants had been struck at the EU level early Wednesday morning.
The EU agreement sanctions the setting up of border detention centers, speeding up the processing of asylum claims and making deportations easier.
The deal also envisions distributing asylum seekers across the bloc to ease the burden of countries like Italy and Greece that are on the edge of the EU's borders and struggle with high levels of migrants.
“The approval of the pact is a great success for Europe and for Italy, which will now be able to count on new rules to manage migratory flows and fight human traffickers,” said Matteo Piantedosi, the interior minister for Italy's far-right government.
The EU deal was also excoriated by left-wing politicians and humanitarian groups.
A group of left-wing European parliamentarians decried the deal as “a bow to right-wing extremists and fascists of Europe.” Amnesty International said it will lead to a “surge in suffering” and sets asylum law “back for decades to come.”
In France, President Emmanuel Macron was coming under intense pressure over the immigration law.
His centrist liberal party, Renaissance, lost its majority in the National Assembly last year and was forced to make concessions on the immigration law to the right-wing Republicans.
After the law's text was toughened, the far-right National Rally said it would vote for the law and that left dozens of left-leaning Renaissance parliamentarians abstaining or voting against the law.
On Wednesday, Macron was facing a crisis with much of France's media denouncing the law and his social affairs and health minister, former communist Aurelien Rousseau, resigning. Other ministers also were threatening to step down.
Faced with backlash, Macron asked the Constitutional Court to review the legislation, opening the door for portions of the law to be struck.
On Wednesday, Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne acknowledged that parts of the law may be illegal but she defended its passage.
“We've done our job, we wanted a text with useful measures that our citizens were calling for,” she told France Inter radio. “Now, let's move on.”
In Brussels, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called the EU deal an “effective European response to this European challenge.”
She said it would help the EU combat human traffickers who lure migrants “with false promises of safe passage and extort money from them.”
“It means that Europeans will decide who comes to the EU and who can stay, not the smugglers,” she said in a statement. “It means protecting those in need.”
This year has seen the number of migrants into the EU grow by 17%, according to Frontex, the bloc's border agency. By the end of November, it had recorded more than 355,000 irregular border crossings into the bloc.
Eve Geddie, a top official for Amnesty International in Europe, warned the EU is taking an inhumane stance against asylum seekers.
“This agreement is designed to make it harder for people to access safety,” Geddie said in a statement. “The pact will almost certainly cause more people to be put into de facto detention at EU borders, including families with children and people in vulnerable situations.”
Geddie worried that countries will be allowed to “opt out of a broad range of EU asylum rules” when they claim to be overwhelmed by migrants who have been smuggled in.
“These exemptions risk, in practice, breaching international obligations under refugee and international human rights law,” Geddie said.
Geddie also warned the deal “reinforces the EU’s dependence on states beyond its borders to manage migration.”
The EU has signed controversial deals where it pays Turkey, Libya, Albania and Tunisia to keep migrants from seeking entry to the EU.
“The EU now risks sleepwalking into a system in even greater need of reform than the current one,” Geddie said.
Courthouse News reporter Cain Burdeau is based in the European Union.
Follow @cainburdeau
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