The Migration and Asylum Pact comes into force. Strada (S&D): “Welcome to the EU’s Minneapolis”

Brussels – “The Migration and Asylum Pact, which comes into force tomorrow, marks day one of a European-style Minneapolis.” This is how MEP (S&D) Cecilia Strada described the set of ten binding rules that, from tomorrow (12 June), will define how the European Union manages its borders, examines asylum applications, and regulates the sharing of responsibilities among Member States. 

It was not only the MEP; Judith Sunderland, senior advisor on migrant and refugee rights at Human Rights Watch, also criticised the new rules: ”Despite the grand promises of European leaders, the new pact slams the door in the face of people who deserve to be treated with dignity and to have their applications for protection examined fairly.” For the expert, this is “a severe blow to the right to asylum, at a time when the world needs Europe to uphold and defend human rights more than ever.” 

Strada reiterated that the EU has “traded the right-wing dream of a European fortress for the dismantling of the right to asylum,” as well as “legalised the systematic violation of human rights, violent pushbacks, arbitrary detentions and deportations.” She also challenged the Italian government, pointing out that “in Europe we are already witnessing discriminatory checks, with Meloni rejoicing at the drop in arrivals while pretending not to know that this drop corresponds to more torture in the countries with which Italy has agreements and more deaths in the Mediterranean.” “There is another way to reduce arrivals and the government knows this well: legal entry, but that is of no use for propaganda,” she concluded. 

Similarly, MEP Marco Tarquinio emphasised that we are witnessing “a political race to tighten and undermine a compromise reached with great difficulty during the last European parliamentary term.” According to the MEP, the pact was initially intended to strengthen the common asylum policy based on solidarity between Member States. However, “today even this is being sidelined.” In examining some of the measures set out in the regulation, Tarquinio stated that “the introduction of concepts such as “safe country of origin” and “safe third country”, together with the acceleration of the new return regulation, are shifting the focus of European policies: from well-regulated asylum to the swiftest possible pushbacks and returns, from protection to the expulsion of people, from solidarity among Member States to the externalisation of borders.” According to the MEP, however, the most disconcerting thing “is having to note once again that even forces which define themselves as populist and liberal, largely of Christian-democratic and pro-European tradition, now share positions that until a few years ago belonged almost exclusively to the nationalist far right.” 

“Despite the new and stringent rules of the Pact on Migration and Asylum, EU Member States can still do the right thing,” urged Sunderland. “At the very least, they should limit the use of detention, identify and protect those most at risk of abuse, and refrain from delegating asylum responsibilities to other countries,” she suggested. And warned that “the curtailment of rights and the erasure of duties produce monstrosities, not order and security,” because “what is denied or taken away from some erodes the freedom and dignity of all.”