Statement: EU Migration Pact
161 Civil Society Organisations call on MEPs to vote down harmful EU Migration Pact
Amidst warnings from over 50 Civil Society Organisations, EU lawmakers reached a political agreement on the EU’s New Pact on Migration and Asylum in December. The agreement is a continuation of a decade of policy that has led to the proliferation of rights violations in Europe. Moreover, it will have devastating implications for the right to international protection in the bloc and greenlights abuses across Europe including racial profiling, default de facto detention and pushbacks. On 4 April 2024, MEPs will be presented with a final chance to reject the files in a Plenary vote, and to give a political signal against the adoption of a Pact that would undermine fundamental rights.
Taken together, the Regulations will usher in a new system for ‘managing migration’ in the EU that is characterised by:
- De facto detention at borders with no exemption for families with children of all ages, accelerated, substandard procedures to assess asylum claims rather than full and fair assessments, and an emphasis on return procedures with lowered safeguards.
Far more asylum applicants will end up in border procedures and, through the ‘legal fiction of non-entry’, will not be considered as on EU territory, which would lead to lower safeguards and heightens the risk of human rights violations and pushbacks at borders. Even unaccompanied children can be subjected to border procedures and held in de facto detention when state authorities consider them a ‘danger to national security or public order’. Moreover, experience has shown that confining large numbers of people in border areas for prolonged periods leads to chronic overcrowding and inhumane conditions, as witnessed on the Aegean islands.
Through the broadening of the ‘safe third country’ principle, people asking for asylum will be declared inadmissible and increasingly deported to countries outside of the EU on the basis of a widely-defined connection with those countries, heightening the risk of refoulement. In the past, this has manifested in failed agreements like the EU-Turkey deal, externalising the processing of asylum claims to third countries.
In the absence of safe and regular pathways, people seeking safety or livelihoods are forced to take ever more dangerous routes, resulting in 2023 being the deadliest year on record since 2015. In the Mediterranean alone, more than 2,500 individuals were reported as dead or disappeared last year, a figure that is only the tip of the iceberg. The Pact fails to address this, and instead continues to reinforce Fortress Europe.
An increase in the use of surveillance technologies at all stages of migration and asylum procedures. The Pact represents a step further into the mass surveillance of migrants and racialised people, as more intrusive technology will be deployed at borders and in detention centres, people’s personal data will be collected in bulk and exchanged between police forces across the EU, or biometric identification systems will be used to track people’s movements and increase policing of undocumented migrants.
Civil society and human rights watchdogs have consistently reported on systematic violations of the fundamental rights of people seeking safety or livelihood, particularly racialised communities by denying them access to shelter, services, and asylum and resorting to pushbacks en masse. All this, whilst pursuing policies that seek to criminalise efforts to help refugees and migrants, and even movement at large, which contributes to a shrinking civic space. The Commission put forth the New Pact as a ‘solution’ for uneven standards in the implementation of a Common European Asylum System across Member States. Yet, the Pact does nothing to remedy this nor support Member States receiving large numbers of arrivals at the external borders. The ‘first country of entry’ principle remains and there will be no mandatory relocation of people saved through Search and Rescue missions – an initiative that could have provided humane and sustainable solutions through the proportionate distribution of asylum applicants throughout Europe. Instead, Member States without external EU borders can avoid responsibility-sharing by financing border fortification and immigration detention facilities in border Member States or by funding dubious ‘projects’ in non-EU countries.
The negotiations were rushed towards closure by the European Commission and the Spanish and Belgian Presidencies of the Council, leading to more than 48 hours of marathon trilogue negotiations and the abandonment of the last minimal safeguards that had been upheld by the Parliament. What remains is an extremely complex legislative framework that does not provide any effective solution to the migration management issues raised over the past years, and fails to keep people safe. The agreement, at its core, replicates every principle of the Council’s negotiating mandate.
We, the undersigned, call on MEPs to reject the Pact in the Plenary vote. It creates a system whereby the right to seek asylum in the EU is severely threatened and will engender a proliferation of human rights violations against people across Europe due to their migration status.
A World of Neighbours
A.S.G.I. (Associazione per gli Studi Giuridici sull’Immigrazione)
Abolish FronteX
Access Now
ActionAid International
aditus foundation
African Children and Youth Development Network (ACYDN)
AiA-Alternative Informatics Association
Alboan
AMERA International
Amnesty International
Andalucía Acoge
ARCI
Association for Legal Information (SIP)
Association promotion droits humains (Migration et droit)
Associazione ricreativa e culturale italiana (ARCI)
Avocats Sans Frontières
Be Aware And Share (BAAS)
Better Days Greece
Birlikte Yaşamak İstiyoruz İnisiyatifi (We Want to Live Together İnitiative) / Türkiye (Turkey)
Bits of Freedom
Boat Refugee Foundation
Border Violence Monitoring Network (BVMN)
Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS)
Center for Legal Aid – Voice in Bulgaria
Centre for Peace Studies
Changemakers Lab
Churches´Commission for Migrants in Europe (CCME)
CILD
CIRÉ asbl
CNCD-11.11.11
Colectivo Indignado
Colectivos en lucha Extremadura
Collective Aid
Comisión Española de Ayuda al Refugiado (CEAR)
CONVIVE – Fundación Cepaim
Coordinadora Obrim Fronteres
Diotima – Centre for Gender Rights and Equality
Dråpen i Havet / Stagona
Draseis sti Geitonia
E.L. Foundation
ECCHR – European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights
ECHO100PLUS
EmpowerVan
Entreculturas
Epicenter.Works
Equal Legal Aid
Equinox Initiative for Racial Justice
Equipo Decenio Afrodescendiente- Spain
EuroMed Rights
European Alternatives
European Anti-Poverty Network (EAPN)
European Civic Forum
European Digital Rights (EDRi)
European Network Against Racism
European Sex Workers’ Rights Alliance
Extinction rebellion Málaga
Federation of protestant churches in Italy (FCEI)
Fédérations des tunisiens citoyens des deux rives (FTCR)
Fenix Humanitarian Legal Aid
Flucht, interkulturelle Arbeit, Migration, Diakonie Hessen,
forRefugees
From the Sea to the City
Fundación para la Innovación, Investigación, Formación y el Desarrollo Comunitario (FÜNDEC)
Geloof & Samenleving
Global Peace and Development Organization
Greek Council for Refugees (GCR)
Greek Forum of Migrants
Grenzenlose Wärme – Refugee Relief Work e.V.
Groupe d’information et de soutien des immigré⋅es (GISTI)
Grupa Granica
Hermes Center
HIAS Europe
Homo Digitalis
Hope Cafe Athens
Human Rights Legal Project
Human Rights Watch
HumanRights360
Humans in the Loop Foundation
I Have Rights
Infokolpa
Instance Nationale de Protection des Biens Publics et de la Transparence au
Maroc “INPBPTM”
Institute Circle
Inter Alia
International Rescue Committee
Irídia-Center for the defense of human rights
Italy Must Act
Jesuit Refugee Service Greece (JRS)
JRS Europe
JRS Malta (Jesuit Refugee Service)
Kerk in Actie
KISA Cyprus
Klikaktiv
LDH (Ligue des droits de l’Homme)
Legal Centre Lesvos
Legis
Lesvos Solidarity (LESOL)
Lighthouse Relief
Ligue des droits humains
Maldusa project
Médecins sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders
medico international
Migrant Voice
Migration Consortium
Migration Policy group (MPG)
Migreurop
Mobile Info Team
Movimiento por la Paz (MPDL)
Mugak Zabalduz
Mv Louise Michel
Network for Children’s Rights (Greece)
No Name Kitchen
No One is Illegal
Northern Lights Aid
Novact
Ongi Etorri Errefuxiatuak
Oxfam
Pan African Alliance on Climate Change
Peace Institute (Mirovni inštitut)
Plataforma Ciudadana Caudete se Mueve
Politiscope
Privacy International
PRO ASYL
Project Armonia
Project ELPIDA e.V.
Quaker Council for European Affairs
r42 – Sail And Rescue
Reachout Foundation
Red Acoge
Red SOS Refugiados Europa
Red Umbrella Sweden
ReFOCUS Media Labs
Refugee Legal Support (RLS)
Refugees Welcome Italia
RESQSHIP e.V.
Salud por Derecho
Salvamento Marítimo Humanitario
Samos Volunteers
Save the Children
Sea-Eye e.V
Sea-Watch
Second Tree
Seebrücke
Servicio Jesuita a Migrantes – SJM
Sienos Grupė (Lithuania)
SOLIDAR
SOS Balkanroute
SOS Humanity
Statewatch
Stichting LOS
Still I Rise
Stop Border Violence
The European region of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA-Europe)
United Hands for Refugees e.V.
United4Rescue – Gemeinsam retten e.V.
Velos youth
Walk of Shame
Watch the Med Alarm-phone
We Gaan Ze Halen (Let’s Bring Them Here)
WissenschaftlerInnen für den Frieden Deutscland (Academics for Peace in Germany)
Yoga and Sport with Refugees
