EU migration pact: progress or not?
Important step
After years of difficult negotiations, European asylum and migration ministers have taken an important step towards a common approach. The pact still needs to be agreed upon and approved by the European Parliament, before taking off. A step was desperately needed. The absence of European cooperation led to dire circumstances for refugees in border countries, and a lack of responsibility sharing among EU Member States.. It remains to be seen how this agreement will work out in practice, both for refugees and for the countries on the EU's external borders.
As the Dublin system will remain in force under this new pact – meaning that the first country of arrival will remain responsible for the asylum procedure - it is questionable how the fair distribution of responsibility among Member States will work in practice. While the pact foresees a distribution formula for member states to take over asylum seekers, countries can buy off this “solidarity” with money or by providing staff s. It is therefore questionable whether countries will actually show solidarity and take over enough asylum seekers from countries that receive the most refugees. There is a risk that southern member states at EU borders will become more overburdened, or that there will be more deterrence practices, resulting in illegal pushbacks and inhumane reception conditions.
Detention of children unacceptable
The detention of families with children at the border is another major concern. Together with other European human rights organisations, the Dutch Council for Refugees insists that the rights of these children must always be protected. Meanwhile, it will take a while for the outcomes of the agreement to be fully implemented and put into practice on the ground. Therefore, the urgency of finding new reception shelters in the Netherlands has not diminished. We, as an organisation, believe that this new agreement is not an alternative to fixing our faltering asylum system in the Netherlands.
It is not fully clear yet what the exact shape of the new European migration will be, and it is now the turn of the European Parliament to agree on the pact. We urge the Dutch members of the European Parliament to oppose the detention of children and make the “solidarity mechanism” proposed in the pact more binding. Meanwhile, we will continue to monitor developments around the agreement with other European human rights organisations.