When reforming EU migration policy, the main target is on accelerated deportations and limited appeal rights for asylum seekers

The European Parliament has approved it Pact on migration and asylum on April 10, 2024, thereby clearing a serious hurdle on the method to EU law. The package of regulations and guidelines goals to do that Update of EU directives about migrants and refugees.

The pact is a legacy of the Migration crisis 2015 when EU countries saw greater than 1 million people Apply for asylum after entering European countries, mainly by boat. The majority fled violence and war Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq.

European countries on the front lines, including Greece and Italy, were overwhelmed by the sheer numbers that resulted Violence against migrants and a backlash from right-wing extremist political parties.

During the crisis, some European states, including Macedonia, Croatia and SloveniaThey closed their borders and effectively detained 60,000 people in Greece living in tent cities.

I’m a political scientist Research into how states and international organizations cope with refugee issues. In 2016 I visited a number of camps in Greece. Authorities there found it difficult to offer basic assistance and failed to offer legal protection or process asylum applications. A variety of these people Waited years for an appointment to look at their asylum applications. Greece had one other one Backlog of twenty-two,316 asylum procedures in 2022.

Therefore, the necessity for migration reform was clear. European leaders hope the newly agreed deal will prevent future migration crises in Europe by tightening borders, making it easier to deport asylum seekers and spreading caseloads across the 27 EU member states.

But to Critics of the pactThe reforms will institutionalize inequality, exploit migration crises and ignore the actual gaps in migration management.

Reform stalled

The recent EU pact follows years of debates about migration by member states, a subject I describe in my book.Delegate responsibility.”

In response to the 2015 crisis, the European Council adopted a binding quota system The following yr, refugees will probably be redistributed across member states based on the dimensions of their economies, their populations and their very own asylum case numbers. Hungary, the Czech Republic and Poland refused to participate, and in 2020 the EU Court of Justice refused found that that they had violated EU law.

Nevertheless, the quota system was never expanded, so the frontline states still had to simply accept a big a part of the European refugee population.

Since 2016, the European Commission has proposed several reforms, but negotiations have stalled because of opposition from far-right governments in Eastern Europe. Viktor Orbán, Hungary's Prime Minister, rejected reforms in 2018He said: “We have to send migrants back to their countries.” Brussels says we are able to't do it. They had also said it was not possible to stop migrants on land, but we did it.”

In terms of content, the brand new pact consists of six major reforms – all of which deal with the next securitize boundaries and to facilitate the deportation of individuals, with, Critics arguelittle protection for migrants and asylum seekers.

The first regulation expands the The EU biometric database for asylum seekers, EURODAC, to record the fingerprints, facial photographs and biographical information of all individuals aged 6 and over. Previously, the database only contained fingerprints – no images or biographical information – of individuals over the age of 14. The pact also makes it easier for the police to access the database.

Secondly, the Asylum and Migration Management Ordinanceor AMMR, continues Dublin Regulation Asylum applications should be examined by the primary member state they enter.

This signifies that Greece and Italy will proceed to process probably the most asylum applications. However, the AMMR allows transfers to a 3rd country based on the applicant's family ties, previous residence or education in one other Member State.

These first two regulations can have immediate legal impact in the event that they are approved by the 27 EU member states within the European Council before June 2024.

The other 4 directives should be incorporated into the domestic laws of EU member states inside the following two years. Taken together, these other 4 directives contribute to creating it tougher for people to use for asylum within the EU.

For example, the Pact institutionalizes the policy that “Hotspot” reception centers on islands off Greece and Italy are transit zones and due to this fact not EU territory. This effectively excludes many Mediterranean islands from EU territory in an effort to deny asylum seekers their full rights.

Another directive changes asylum procedures to hurry up the deportation of people that entered through a “safe third country” or come from a rustic where the popularity rate – the proportion of asylum applications approved from a given country of origin – is below 20%.

Human rights groups criticize the pact because expedited deportations are based on group characteristics slightly than individual review. They claim that the reforms also undermine the… Right of appeal – sometimes deporting people before an appeal decision is complete – and expanding detention.

Use migration flows

The EU shouldn’t be the just one attempting to make it tougher to use for asylum. Similar to the EU's “safe third country” policy, the Biden administration has adopted the ““Legal ways” rule. in May 2023 – which was blocked and later reintroduced. Biden's executive order ran parallel President Donald Trump's previous transit and entry bans, arguing that asylum seekers must submit their application in the primary secure country they go through. Courts blocked Trump and initially blocked Biden because US law guarantees everyone the suitable to use for asylum, no matter their previous immigration status or how they entered the US. The regulation currently applies in the course of the break and waits for the answer.

The EU reforms also include Biden's recent proposals to shut the border during a migration surge. The pact creates a brand new procedure for suspending normal asylum rules if a rustic on the EU's external border “instrumentizes migration” – in other words, if a rustic deliberately sends migrants or refugees with the aim of destabilizing the EU.

This provision reflects the fear that non-EU members Belarus has “turned migration into a weapon”.” in 2021, encouraging Syrians and Iraqis to cross the border into Poland, an EU state.

There is a growing scientific literature on “Migration diplomacy” And “Refugee extortion“, which documents how States use migration flows as an instrument of their foreign policy.

However, the EU pact's approach overrides the rights of asylum seekers slightly than addressing the larger geopolitical threats.

The most controversial directive reintroduces quotas, but with a “flexible solidarity mechanism.” This mechanism can be triggered if numerous asylum seekers entered an EU state and overloaded its reception system. Under these circumstances, other EU states could resolve to either accept asylum seekers from frontline states or finance deportations. States can be required to relocate at the least 30,000 people per yr but would have the choice to accomplish that pay 20,000 euros (US$21,000) for everybody.

Critics argue that this commercializes refugees – within the truest sense of the word a price tag on individual lives – and at the identical time undermine solidarity.

“Fortress Europe”

The need for EU migration reform was highlighted by the 2015 crisis faced by Europe's frontline countries.

But as an alternative of addressing the true problems of low state capability, processing times, human rights protection or conditions in detention centers, I imagine the pact will reinforce the concept: “Fortress Europe“by investing in deterrence and deportation, not in human rights.”