The European Parliament approved on Wednesday an overhaul of migration policy aimed at ramping up deportations and ​allowing member states to set up detention centres abroad, in what critics describe as a cruel system that weakens ‌safeguards for asylum seekers.

“The dehumanization of migrants and refugees, including in the UK, US, and many EU countries, is appalling, often leading also to the denial of their rights,” Volker Turk, the United Nations’ human rights chief, said on Monday in the United Nations ​Human Rights Council.