Migration and asylum

This article outlines the main features of the New EU Pact on Migration and Asylum, and describes the context in which the proposal has been drafted. Some of the initial critical comments made by different stakeholders will be further highlighted, to draw some preliminary conclusions.

In the last few months, more than 500 migrants have lost their lives trying to leave West Africa for the Canary Islands and thus Europe, in a terrible repeat of the situation of 2005/2006. In 2006 alone, more than 32,000 migrants set off on the perilous journey from the coast of West Africa hoping to reach the Canary Islands across the sea.

A 6-year-old boy from Afghanistan drowned in November 2020 off the coast of Samos. Ηe was with his father and other asylum seekers onboard a dinghy that was shipwrecked. The tragic loss of a child’s life hardly made an impression on the international media or public discourse in Greece.  

When the Taliban put a bounty on Afghan director Hassan Fazili’s head, he was forced to flee the country with his wife and two young daughters. He captured the family’s uncertain journey at first hand, documenting their harrowing trek across numerous borders.

In contrast to many declarations that Italy should not be left to face the challenges of mass boat arrivals from North Africa alone, the New Pact's proposals if anything renew the obsolete “Dublin system”.

Despite its tough public rhetoric, the Polish government might turn out to be more flexible behind closed doors regarding the New Pact, to prevent embarrassing defeats on issues that are far more important from a domestic policy point of view, such as the rule of law.

In Czechia, debates about the EU's New Pact focus only on border protection, return and detention, rather than discussing more relevant proposals on legal migration, integration and inclusion.

In mid-September 2020, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen spoke out strongly in favour of a human and humane approach to the common EU Asylum Policy. Her lofty promises did not, however, survive very long.