Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Wednesday that the E.U Migration and Asylum Pactwhich is due to come into force on Friday harmful changes to the EU asylum system.
The agreement, originally adopted in 2024, introduces stricter rules aimed at expanding applicant screening, strengthening health and safety checks, speeding up screening processes and offering free consulting services. The pact consists of 10 binding laws that HRW believes will make it easier for governments to make hasty decisions that limit protections for migrants and increase the time migrants spend in detention.
In one Press releaseJudith Sunderland, HRW’s senior adviser on refugee and migrant rights, said:
The new EU asylum pact closes the door in the face of people who deserve to be treated with dignity and have a fair hearing about their protection rights, despite the trumpets of EU leaders. The pact takes a sledgehammer to the right to asylum at a time when the world needs Europe to stand up for human rights more than ever.
HRW has criticized that the new agreement will allow European countries to designate non-EU member states as “safe third countries”. This allows an EU member to refuse to examine an asylum application and instead encourage the applicant to submit their application in a third country to which they may have no family or cultural ties.
The pact has faced challenges in the past, particularly from right-wing governments that opposed its adoption and later threatened to withdraw from the pact entirely.
Governments across the West are increasingly taking anti-immigration measures. Canada recently passed widely criticized Bill C-12, which will allow mass cancellation of immigration applications, according to warnings from migrant rights groups. In the US, headlines about abuses by immigration officials have been commonplace since Trump took office, including the tragic deaths of migrants in custody and the murders of Renée Good, Alex Pretti, Keith Porter, Ruben Ray Martinez and Silverio Villegas González.
