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. Next week, 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.

Signing Organisations:

• 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)
• Community Peacemaker Solidarity – Aegean Migrant Solidarity
• 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
• La Cimade
• 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

This statement was first circulated in February 2024, when it gathered 81 signatures. It was then re-circulated in April 2024, gathering a total of 163 signatures.

EU lawmakers have reached a political agreement on the revision of the Schengen Borders Code that would de facto legitimise racial profiling in border checks.

The reform of the Schengen Borders Code aims at reducing the amount of temporary generalised internal EU border checks. However, it would escalate checks on specific groups of people. In particular, the deal would allow police authorities in joint patrols to carry out “random” document checks near internal EU borders with the aim of apprehending people without valid travel or residence documents. Research has already shown that police tend to stop people for checks based on racial, ethnic, or religious characteristics. It is clear that these checks will depend on police’s decisions about who “looks like” a person without valid papers.

Silvia Carta, Advocacy Officer at PICUM, said: “This agreement embraces a very harmful narrative which assumes that people crossing borders without valid documents are a threat to the EU and proposes to address it by increasing policing, while de facto encouraging racial profiling”.

The deal would also legalise the violent practice of ‘internal pushbacks’, which consists in apprehending and detaining people caught without a valid document near an internal border, and transferring them to the member state the police think the person came from without conducting an individual assessment. It is still unclear which ‘safeguards’ have been introduced to protect children, who are not explicitly excluded from such transfer procedures.

The deal would most likely escalate the use of monitoring and surveillance technologies that do not apply relevant safeguards and would be at odds with existing EU data protection legislation and fundamental rights.

Lastly, the deal would also allow internal checks and increased policing in situations of so-called “instrumentalisation of migration”, that is when a member state claims that a non-EU country or ‘hostile non state actor’ is pushing migrants towards external EU borders for political reasons. This is an extremely problematic concept, whose codification into EU law would introduce broad derogations to fundamental rights, including the right to asylum and freedom of movement.

An open letter to negotiators in the European Commission, the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the European Union, and the European Parliament ahead of the final negotiations on the EU Pact on Migration

We are writing as concerned human rights defenders, and as people who see and work with the stark consequences of political choices.

The EU Pact on Migration and Asylum will mirror the failed approaches of the past and worsen their consequences. There is currently a major risk that the Pact results in an ill-functioning, costly, and cruel system that falls apart on implementation and leaves critical issues unaddressed. 

If adopted in its current format, it will normalise the arbitrary use of immigration detention, including for children and families, increase racial profiling, use “crisis” procedures to enable pushbacks, and return individuals to so called “safe third countries” where they  are at risk of violence, torture, and arbitrary imprisonment.

It also betrays the spirit of existing EU work, such as the EU Action Plan on Integration and the EU Action Plan Against Racism which recognises the intersectional impacts of racism and the specific vulnerability of migrants and refugees. The Pact, as it stands, risks perpetuating discriminatory practices within the very structures meant to uphold justice and protection for all. 

We are acutely aware that politics is often about compromise. But there are exceptions, and human rights cannot be compromised. When they are weakened, there are consequences for all of us.  

Rather than channelling funding towards more camps, walls, and surveillance, resources should go towards providing effective solutions, based on protection and assistance, of the kind offered to people fleeing Ukraine. Europe’s solidarity and commitment to human rights cannot be defined by place of origin, race, ethnicity, or immigration status.

We should strengthen, not weaken, our reception and asylum systems and provide mechanisms to fairly share responsibility between European states. We need support for – not restrictions on – rescuing people at sea. We need more, not less, access to legal aid, asylum, medical and social support for people in need. We need real accountability for  border forces that violate our laws. And we need more safe routes for people to move, work and settle in safety and dignity. 

We have recently witnessed a dignified and compassionate response to displacement with the activation of the Temporary Protection Directive. This stands as a testament to the principles of human rights and protection that should guide our collective approach to these reforms. The New Pact must reflect and build upon this dignified response rather than leading Europe in the opposite direction.

There are times when political choices can make a profound difference, for better or for worse, to people’s lives. Today is one such time. We’re asking you to show leadership for the just and compassionate Europe we all want to live in.

Sincerely,

• ActionAid International
• Amnesty International
• Association for Juridical Studies on Immigration (ASGI)
• Balkanbrücke
• Be Aware And Share (BAAS)
• Birlikte Yaşamak İstiyoruz İnisiyatifi / We Want to Live Together Initiative
• The Border Violence Monitoring Network (BVMN)
• Caritas Europa
• Centre for Legal Aid “Voice in Bulgaria“
• Civil initiative Infokolpa
• CNCD – 11.11.11.
• Collective Aid
• Churches´ Commission for Migrants in Europe (CCME)
• Divest Borders
• Dokustelle
• Equal Legal Aid
• Equinox Initiative for Racial Justice
• EuroMed Rights
• Europe Cares
• European Anti-Poverty Network (EAPN)
• European Lawyers for Democracy and Human Rights (ELDH)
• European Network Against Racism (ENAR)
• European Network on Religion and Belief (ENORB)
• Generation for Change CY
• Greek Forum of Migrants (GFM)
• Grenzenlose Wärme – Refugee Relief Work e.V.
• Habibi.Works (Soup and Socks, e.V.)
• I Have Rights
• Intereuropean Human Aid Association Germany e.V.
• International Rescue Committee
• Ivorian Community of Greece
• JRS Europe
• KISA – Action for Equality, Support, Antiracism
• La Cimade
• Legal Centre Lesvos
• Ligue des Droits de l’Homme (LDH)
• Love Without Borders
• Media and Migration Association (MMA)
• Mobile Info Team
• NLA (Northern Lights Aid)
• Oxfam
• Pikett Asyl
• Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants (PICUM)
• ReFOCUS Media Labs
• Refugee Legal Support (RLS)
• Refugees in Libya
• Revibra Europe
• Samos Volunteers
• Save the Children
• SIEMPRE Belgium
• SOLIDAR
• S.P.E.A.K (Muslim Women Collective NL)
• Voices of International Students (VOIS Cyprus)
• Women’s Healthcare on the Move
• Yoga and Sport with Refugees