Recent EU border policies raise concern amongst civil society organizations

European Union leaders demonstrated their commitment to tightening borders and shifting towards harsher policies regarding migrants and asylum seekers on October 17 in Brussels during a summit dominated by discussions of migration. The summit comes following a recent surge of the far right in the EU parliamentary elections this June and in other regional elections throughout Europe. Discussions of migration in Europe have increasingly shifted to the right, with Germany and France strengthening border controls to combat unauthorized migration and Italy externalizing asylum processing with centers in Albania. This trend was reflected in the European Commission’s discussion of migration at the summit, which centered on the creation of more efficient and harmonized forced return efforts, as well as processing asylum applications in non-EU third countries, and fortifying Schengen borders in order to strengthen “Fortress Europe”. Following the summit, Solidar, a European network of NGOs, released a statement on October 25 warning that the EU’s recent migration and asylum policies will “accelerate a race to the bottom to dismantle what is left of the right to seek asylum in Europe.” 

The new EU migration policies mark a shift from the European Union’s approach to the refugee crisis in 2015, when over a million migrants and refugees primarily from the Middle East and Afghanistan, sought help in Europe. Well over a million migrants and refugees sought help then, mainly from the Middle East and Afghanistan. During the 2015 crisis, former German Chancellor Angela Merkel famously said, “We can manage that.” Now, European leaders are working to tighten their borders with increasingly hostile policies. At the summit, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said that “Things are changing in the European Union. Now the majority of leaders are saying the same: that we cannot continue. The numbers are too high. We have to return those who should not be protected in Europe.”

This movement to crack down on migration and limit the right to asylum is reflective of the EU’s disturbing movement away from its international and human rights legal obligations. During the summit, member states lay out plans for screening migrants and asylum seekers, as well as establishing qualifications for protection and deportation plans. The leaders backed Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who announced on October 12 the temporary suspension of the right to asylum, stating that Russia and Belarus are using migrants to target the EU as part of a “hybrid war” amidst Russia’s war against Ukraine. In recent weeks, Italy has opened two centers for asylum processing in Albania. EU leaders have expressed interest in developing agreements with “third country” non member states in order to process asylum seekers. Schoof, whose government is dominated by Geert Wilders’s far-right Party for Freedom, is looking to set up outsourcing in Uganda. “These are innovative solutions that should in principle interest our colleagues here,” he said. European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyden expressed similar support for the “innovative” outsourcing projects.

The shift of the European Commission’s migration policies in recent months has been of major concern to NGOs and civil society organizations globally. The European Parliament adopted the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum (Pact) on April 10, promising a “European Solution” whilst developing new migration and asylum policies. The package of ten legislative files lays out plans for robust screenings, mandatory checks, efficient procedures for asylum and returns, crisis preparedness, as well as “outsourcing” asylum processing to third countries. Civil society organizations and NGOs have been heavily critical of these new plans, claiming that the legislation works to effectively dismantle the right to seek asylum in Europe and violates the EU’s commitment to the international refugee protection statement. The European Union has an obligation under Article 18 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights to ensure that refugees are protected and the right to seek asylum. In a joint statement released on July 9, a network of civil society organizations and NGOs including Amnesty International and the International Rescue Committee stated that the EU Pact serves to confuse jurisdiction, and the “innovative” third country solutions that have been praised by some leaders in the European Commission is an abandonment of the EU’s obligations under international law. 

“Third country” agreements, which aim to stem the arrival of asylum seekers in EU member states and create “return hubs” in non member states, have been signed with Turkey, Libya, Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt and Mauritania. Visa and trade policies are often used as incentive for third country agreement. Many of the countries involved in these agreements are in the global south and already hosting the largest numbers of refugees. According to the International Rescue Committee, 70% of over the 120 million displaced people globally (UNHCR) are hosted in countries in hunger crises, and around 75% of refugees are hosted in low-and-middle- income countries close to their origin countries. Outsourcing puts processing and refugee protection onto countries in the Global South with far fewer resources and allows the EU to avoid its responsibilities to global protection under international law. These agreements are also of concern to human rights organizations because the human rights records of third countries are largely disregarded by the EU. The agreements often bypass existing legislative frameworks and have no real safeguards or human rights monitoring. Civil society organizations warn that these outsourcing projects raise the possibility of human rights violations of migrants and are extremely harmful to the wellbeing of those seeking protection.

Despite these concerns, leaders in the European Commission are continuing to work to dismantle the right to seek asylum and push for policies incongruous with the EU’s global protection commitments under international law. The EU must listen to the concerns of and consult with civil society organizations regarding its new migration policies, and maintain transparency and work to implement a human rights-oriented approach that centers and protects those seeking safety.

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