Lawmakers in the European Union's Parliament on Tuesday voted to greenlight a proposal which would allow Europol to expand data sharing and biometric data collection as part of its effort to fight human trafficking and migrant smuggling.

Parliament’s Civil Liberties Committee (LIBE), which approved the package, will now send the proposal to a full plenary vote to be held later this month.

Privacy and civil liberties advocates have decried the proposed expansion for how it will allegedly facilitate mass surveillance and large scale data privacy violations.

The proposal expands data sharing between national governments and Europol and allows for more substantial processing of biometric data.

“By voting in favour of the Europol Regulation, Members of the LIBE Committee have greenlighted the European Commission’s long-term plan to turn Europe into a digital police state,” Caterina Rodelli, EU Policy Analyst at Access Now, said in a prepared statement.