Migration and asylum

Some 100 million people are currently forcibly displaced worldwide. This year's World Refugee Day therefore, once again, marks a sad record: never before have there been so many refugees as this year, according to UNHCR figures. The brutal war of aggression against Ukraine has played a part in that.

Since the start of Russia's war against Ukraine on 24 February 2022, three and a half million people have fled the country. A conversation with Tineke Strik MEP on the triggering of the EU Temporary Protection Directive and what chances and challenges come with it.

Afghan women political representatives want to establish a parliament in exile in Greece: reason enough for me to pay them a visit and show my support.

In Tunisia, the first decade of democratization did not lead to an expansion of migrant rights. Despite initial attempts to replace the restrictive policies inherited from the authoritarian regime of Ben Ali, domestic and international forces ultimately put breaks on liberal migration reform.

In recent days, there has been a lot of talk in the EU about an emerging “wave of refugees” or “migration disaster”. However, the real disaster is the failure of Western governments to rescue people from Afghanistan who deserve our protection, the Director of our office in Brussels, Eva van de Rakt, comments.

Just days after Taliban violently seized control of Afghanistan, the Greek Minister for Migration and Asylum, Notis Mitarakis, has warned of a repeat of the situation in 2015 and announced that Greece will not be the “gateway to Europe for illegal Afghan migrants”.

This short sentence is all you need to understand why the German government committed an error of judgment concerning Afghanistan. An error of judgment that kills people every day – and democracy throughout the world as well, by the way.

As part of the examination of the New EU Pact on Migration and Asylum proposed by the European Commission, the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung Paris office publishes a series of analyses devoted to this subject. This second article examines the progress of the debates on the Pact at European level, considering in particular the external dimension of migration and asylum policies and the relationship with third countries, as well as the legal routes of entry of refugees, asylum seekers and migrants into the EU.

This article outlines the main features of the New EU Pact on Migration and Asylum, and describes the context in which the proposal has been drafted. Some of the initial critical comments made by different stakeholders will be further highlighted, to draw some preliminary conclusions.