Joint recommendations: Ten steps to meet EU human rights obligations and safeguard access to asylum in Europe

In light of recent plans and ‘innovative strategies’ to prevent arrivals, speed up returns and deepen cooperation with third countries, 50 humanitarian and human rights organizations call in a new recommendation brief on EU Member States and the European Commission to firmly reject any attempts to weaken protection for asylum seekers at and within EU borders as well as in cooperation with third countries on asylum and migration.

As a new political cycle begins, the new European Commission and European Parliament should take a close look at their legal obligations and place emphasis on ensuring a successful and human rights-compliant implementation of the reform of the asylum and migration policy they finally adopted in 2024, after years of negotiation.

DRC EU Director, Céline Mias says: "The numerous initiatives aimed at deterring and diverting refugees’ and asylum seekers' movements are highly damaging. The criminalization of mobility and the detention and threat of deportation of people seeking safety and protection puts an enormous strain on people already in a vulnerable position. Such initiatives should be rejected as they have proven to be inhumane and to breach international human rights law standards."

Background

Political pressure is increasing for so-called ‘innovative strategies’ to either process asylum applications outside EU territory, to refuse asylum applications entirely and shift both asylum processing and eventual protection responsibilities to countries outside the EU, or to externalize return procedures to centers outside of the EU. 

At a European Council summit focused on migration on 17 October 2024, EU leaders doubled down on plans to prevent people from arriving on EU soil, to speed up forced returns and to continue to strengthen cooperation with third countries to externalize asylum and migration management. This direction was reiterated at the confirmation hearings of the Commissioners-designate for the Mediterranean and for Internal Affairs and Migration on 5 November, where they expressed an openness to outsourcing schemes.  

None of these schemes are part of the legislative reform under the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum and often involve a rehashing of previously discarded or tried-and-failed proposals. A global body of research shows that every time such schemes have been attempted, they have resulted in arbitrary detention, refoulement, and other rights violations.