Anger at ‘send them back’ chants by rightwing MEPs after EU migration law vote

0:48 Rightwing MEPs chant 'send them back' after controversial deportation plans are passed – video Anger at ‘send them back’ chants by rightwing MEPs after EU migration law vote Other lawmakers respond with ‘shame on you’ in heated confrontation over passing of plan to increase deportations Rightwing MEPs have come under fire after they celebrated a vote aimed at increasing deportations across the EU with chants of “send them back”, leading other lawmakers to respond with cries of “shame on you”. The heated confrontation in the European parliament came on Wednesday after lawmakers voted 418 to 218 to approve controversial measures aimed at increasing deportations of undocumented people. The overhaul has been widely criticised by rights groups including Amnesty International France, which this week described the plans as “absurd, cruel and discriminatory”, and 16 UN experts, who recently outlined more than a dozen ways in which the rules could contravene international human rights. The plans include measures under which people could be detained for up to two years or sent to offshore centres that have been described as potential “human rights black holes”, while also allowing ICE-style immigration enforcement to gain a foothold in Europe. On Wednesday, as an alliance of mostly centre-right and far-right lawmakers joined forces to back the plans, the approval was met with hearty applause in the parliament. Many rightwing MEPs jumped to their feet, a handful of them pumping their fists in the air as they chanted “send them back”. Seconds later, a second chorus, this time from politicians on the centre-left and left, responded by chanting “shame on you”. The moment underscored the deep divisions in the European parliament, after elections in 2024 led to a record number of nationalist and far-right MEPs. The far right’s celebration of the vote was swiftly condemned. Javi López, a Socialist and vice-president of the European parliament, described the plenary session as “disgraceful”. Writing on social media, he added: “As if people were parcels. Families. Minors. Deported to third countries. This is the Europe they are imposing.” Manus Carlisle, who manages communication for the Left group in parliament, said it was a “dark moment that is likely to go down in EU history”, while the French Renew MEP Laurence Farreng said it was a moment in which “the far right is screaming its hatred”. Ilaria Salis, an Italian MEP for the Green and Left Alliance who made headlines in 2023 after she was arrested at a counter-demonstration to a neo-Nazi rally in Budapest, described it as “horrifying”. “The human depravity of a certain political faction truly seems to know no bounds: rejoicing over the deportation of innocent people,” she wrote on social media. “Rejoicing not because someone’s life is improving, but because someone else’s – considered different, inferior, less deserving of rights – is getting worse.” Salis said this was how fascism crept into democratic i