Last year, the 1951 Refugee Convention, the main international instrument granting refugees and asylum seekers fundamental human rights, celebrated its 70th anniversary. However, a growing number of European countries are failing to uphold the right to asylum guaranteed in the Convention.
EU policy has strayed far from the commitments that member states made in the Convention. During the past years, the EU has consistently moved towards strengthening its external borders and implementing stricter asylum rules, as evidenced in the new “Pact on Migration and Asylum,” which was presented in 2020, to minimize the inflow of irregular migrants — a shift that has weakened access to a fair and full asylum procedure.
Non-refoulement, a core principle of international refugee law, prohibits states from returning refugees in any manner whatsoever to countries or territories in which their lives or freedom may be threatened. Yet, Amnesty International recently reported that the number of illegal pushbacks reported across the EU’s territory has risen sharply. Human Rights Watch reported that several member states, including Croatia, Greece, Hungary, and Poland, have engaged in pushbacks.
The Poland-Belarus border crisis, which reached its apex last year, is an example of how far EU member states have strayed from upholding the right to seek asylum. Belarusian border patrol agents helped migrants to cross the border into Poland, but the majority that made it across were deported–even if they claimed asylum–in violation of international law. As a result, migrants were trapped and pushed back and forth between the two countries for weeks. Human rights organizations detailed stories of harrowing abuse, beating, and arbitrary detention of migrants.
Polish contractors have begun work on a new 353 million euro ($407 million) wall along the Belarus border aimed at deterring refugee crossings following the crisis. The wall raises serious human rights questions about how refugees will be able to enter the country and seek asylum.
At Europe’s southern border, the Libyan coast guard has intercepted over 80,000 migrants who have tried to cross the Mediterranean into the EU. The International Organization for Migration reported that more than 32,000 migrants were deported back to Libya from the EU last year — almost three times as many as in 2020.
This month, 12 people were found dead at the Turkish border as a result of illegal Greek pushbacks, which left migrants out in the cold to freeze to death — a clear violation of the Refugee Convention and the European Convention on Human Rights for abdicating the responsibility to examine asylum claims and providing shelter.
The EU and its member states remain formally compliant with international law and support the right to seek asylum, but their policies show that deterrence is the dominant political imperative. The EU’s recent actions showcase Europe’s continued failures to manage migration humanely and with respect for people’s dignity.
After the 2015 “migration crisis” exposed flaws in the EU’s asylum regulations — the so-called Dublin system, which placed the responsibility for asylum claims on member states of first entry — the “New Pact on Migration and Asylum” was launched in 2020 to combat irregular migration, streamline the asylum process, and stymie illegal smuggling. So, what is new in the new Pact?
The Vice-President of the European Commission, Margaritis Schinas, has described the new Pact as a “three-floor building.” The ground floor is the external dimension, namely the relations with third countries to facilitate the transit of migrants. The second floor concerns the EU’s external borders, which includes a budget increase for Frontex, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency. The third floor consists of a new “compulsory, flexible” form of solidarity, which means that countries of first entry could trigger mechanisms to reduce pressure on the system.
An overarching theme of the new Pact is shifting the attention away from underlying reasons for migration and focusing on more efficient and streamlined asylum procedures. In practice, that means that individuals are exposed to border controls long before they reach EU territory. Additionally, the focus on deterrence has led to more violent methods of preventing migrants from entering Europe, as evidenced above.
A glaringly absent element is a roadmap for legal migration. The heavy focus on fortifying borders and externalizing asylum processing has signaled that the EU’s focus is set on preventing migration rather than creating efficient migration mechanisms within the union and the upholding right to asylum as protected by the Refugee Convention.
Be First to Comment