Lesbos: The European Union has agreed its toughest migration measure yet, a sweeping new law to speed up the removal of people with no right to remain. After a provisional deal between the Council and Parliament struck at the start of June, the European Parliament gave final approval to the Returns Regulation on 17 June 2026, with lawmakers backing the text by 418 votes to 218. Supporters hailed it as a long-overdue tool; opponents called it punitive. The regulation overhauls a returns system widely seen as broken, in which only a fraction of removal orders are ever carried out. At its heart is a new European Return Order, a standardised form capturing the key elements of each removal decision so that an order issued in one member state can be recognised and enforced across the bloc. The law also imposes duties on those facing return to cooperate with authorities, and it envisages the creation of return hubs in countries outside the EU. The measure complements the wider Pact on Migration and Asylum, whose entry-screening provisions took effect earlier, and it reflects a hardening political mood across the continent. Governments of varying stripes have concluded that credible enforcement of returns is the price of public consent for any humane asylum system, and that the gap between orders issued and removals achieved has corroded trust in the whole framework. The backlash has been fierce. Human-rights groups warn that the regulation risks normalising prolonged detention and outsourcing responsibility to third countries with weaker protections, and that the return-hub concept raises serious legal and ethical questions. The size of the dissenting vote in Parliament, more than two hundred against, underscores how divisive the law remains even among lawmakers who accept the need for reform. Defenders counter that a system whose decisions are routinely ignored serves no one, least of all migrants left in limbo, and that harmonised, enforceable rules are more humane than the chaotic patchwork they replace. They argue that public confidence in legal migration depends on demonstrable control of the irregular kind. The two positions reflect a genuine and unresolved tension at the heart of European migration policy. The regulation will fully enter into force on 1 July 2027, giving member states a year to build the legal and administrative machinery it requires. Whether it delivers faster returns without sacrificing fundamental rights is the test that now looms, and it will be fought out case by case long after the headlines fade.