Refugee & Migration Policy

While the fall of the Syrian regime on 8 December 2024 has significantly changed the political landscape, conditions in Syria are insufficient and unsafe for large-scale returns. From this perspective, Turkey’s “go-and-see” visit policy allows Syrians under temporary protection to assess the situation first-hand before deciding whether to return.

The European Commission has signed a new agreement with Egypt. One of the aims is to reduce migration to Europe. But this will most likely not succeed.

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.

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.

In contrast to many declarations that Italy should not be left to face the challenges of mass boat arrivals from North Africa alone, the New Pact's proposals if anything renew the obsolete “Dublin system”.

In Czechia, debates about the EU's New Pact focus only on border protection, return and detention, rather than discussing more relevant proposals on legal migration, integration and inclusion.