Some summon history, others hope to finally move on. On Wednesday April 10, the European Parliament validated, four months after the Member States, the ten regulations and directives which make up the “pact on migration and asylum”. The vote was a little less close than expected on the most controversial texts, passing with around thirty majority votes. Human rights activists interrupted the vote for a few minutes, chanting “The pact kills, vote no!” »(“the pact kills, vote no”).
Nine years after the arrival of two million Syrian refugees in Europe and after several attempts at reforms in order to harmonize national policies for welcoming migrants, the Twenty-Seven ended up finding a compromise on a subject which fueled the tensions between them for years. They now hope that the new common rules will make it possible to better deal with the arrival of migrants at its borders. In 2023, some 380,000 people attempted to enter European territory irregularly, an increase of 17% compared to 2022.
“It’s a proud momentconfides Ylva Johansson, the Commissioner for Internal Affairs, who has led the project for four and a half years. This text will make an important difference to the way illegal immigration is managed today. We will do it in an orderly manner. On the one hand, we will protect our borders, while on the other giving protection to people fleeing war and persecution. »
Unprecedented hardening
States will have to put in place registration, screening (including a health examination) and accelerated asylum application procedures at borders for applicants clearly ineligible for refugee status. Countries will have six weeks to analyze their request. If this is refused, States will be able to return them within six to ten weeks. In the event of a sudden increase in migratory pressure, solidarity mechanisms between Member States will be activated in order to relieve the countries on the front line.
If this series of texts found a majority in the council and in Parliament – part of the left and the extreme right voted against or abstained, the first judging them too firm, the second too lax – it is nevertheless perceived as an unprecedented tightening of migration management in Europe.
While a large part of European leaders welcome this vote, other actors condemn it. Some 161 human rights or refugee aid NGOs, as well as specialists working on the subject, called for the text to be rejected. For them, “the introduction of mandatory border procedures will be dangerous, inhumane, impractical and ineffective”.
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