European Migration Policies and the Right of Asylum

Ovidius University Annals: Economic Sciences Series, 2019

A number of European structures have been and are concerned about the phenomenon of migration that has involved Europe so dynamically in recent years, being the biggest challenge in the field, after World War II. The structures we refer to have participated in managing this phenomenon of migration by: reforming EU asylum rules, discouraging irregular migration, saving lives and securing external borders, implementing a strong common asylum policy, developing the new policy on legal migration and like. Thus, we aim to investigate the most important aspects of migration and asylum, including: the specific causes and needs related to Maslow's pyramid, legal and illegal migration, the way that some of the EU institutions have contributed to the migration and asylum reform and so on.

REFLECTING ON EUROPE’S (DIS)ORDER: SCENARIOS FOR THE EU’S FUTURE EURINT 2018 IBĂNESCU | Cristian ÎNCALȚĂRĂU | Ramona ȚIGĂNAȘU | Ciprian ALUPULUI (eds.), 2018

An overview of main legal issues related to recent practice on migratory fluxes towards European Union and European borders in broader terms. Specific analysis of cases related to the implementation of the "Solidarity principle" between EU member States. Recent case studies of EU asylum "external" policies (EU/Turkey deal and Italy/Lybia agreement)

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF AFRO-EURASIAN RESEARCH (IJAR), 2020

The migration pressure to Europe in 2015 led to the breakdown of the Common European Asylum System (CEAS) as more than one million people applied for asylum to Europe. While trying to cope with the "crisis", some member states asserted that first entry or secondary movement of asylum seekers' constitute a burden on themselves. The European Commission (EC), therefore called for greater responsibility-sharing across European Union member states, especially on the redistribution of refugees, as a response. This happened only one year after the "crisis", when the EC declared a reform process in CEAS including Dublin revision and solidarity enforcement throughout the member states. This article studies the reform process, including New Pact of 2020 and solidarity efforts from migration- security nexus while asking the question of whether the EU would be successful to become a more secure "fortress". Scope and meaning of solidarity concept in terms of CEAS in line with different arguments of member states will be revealed in order to analyse the primary concerns of the European Union on setting out its asylum policy.

The number of asylum seekers in 2014 was the highest since 1992, when the Bosnia-Herzegovina war began. Nowadays, the Syrian civil war, the migratory transit through the Mediterranean Sea (218.0001 economic migrants and refugees), the alarming figures of deaths, and the increasing social pressure, made the EU step forward to review the current migration and neighborhood policy framework, whilst fostering a communitarian dimension, inexistent so far.

Pressure on national asylum systems due to increasing numbers of asylum seekers and the opening of internal borders have led to cooperation at a common level since 1980. However, the EU laws and policies on asylum have mainly focused on the reduction of asylum claims rather than creating a fair and accessible asylum system. This has raised a concern whether it is compatible with the commitment of the EU to protect the right to seek refugee status within its territory. The main aim of this dissertation is to analyse the EU common asylum policy and its compatibility with the right to seek asylum under the Universal Declaration of Human Right. To this aim, after describing and analysing on the international protection regime and its limitations for refugees, the thesis will extensively examine the EU asylum policy and its restrictive policies. These restrictive policies under the non-arrival and non-admission policies such as visa requirements, carrier sanctions, the safe third country concept and readmission agreements are aimed at preventing asylum seekers from arriving at EU territory and from accessing asylum determination procedures. In analysing these policies, this thesis will demonstrate how the EU has developed strict policies to be protected from refugees entering its territory and undermined the right to seek asylum and its non-refoulement obligation. This thesis therefore, suggests that the EU should support and encourage stability and the development of refugee-producing countries rather than focusing on discouraging asylum seekers with restrictive policies.

Asylum is a common concern for both Northern and Southern European countries, although they look at the problem from different perspectives. Southern countries are in fact exposed to pressures of irregular migration and asylum seeking because of their geographical proximity to zones of instability and conflict and have to find ways to effectively filter mixed flows, providing international protection to those who need it and managing irregular migration. On the other hand, Northern European countries are more "protected" from irregular migration because of their geographical position but have been traditionally the preferred destinations of asylum seekers and hence face mostly the problem of properly processing applications rather than that of filtering them at their borders. There is an important gap, though, in the asylum acquis that needs to be addressed. While rejections are valid throughout the EU, hence if a member state rejects the application of an asylum seeker s/he cannot apply in another member state, positive decisions do not provide for an EU status nor member states are obliged to recognize such decisions.

The current migration and refugee crises in Europe and the Mediterranean region capture the interest of politicians, journalists, researchers and experts, and inspire many questions about the causes and consequences of these massive migratory movements for the European Union, and about the effectiveness of the EU policy on migration and asylum. Currently, from the EU perspective at least two issues seem to be crucial: 1. how to solve the crisis situation already found in the EU, taking into consideration priority level(s) to face it – global, EU and/or national, the tools to be designed and implemented, the stakeholders to be involved in the problem-solving process; 2. what steps to take in order to prevent the deepening of the crisis and to halt the influx of new migrants to the EU, having in mind the interests of the Member States, the integrity of the EU, the overall political climate in the EU and respect for international law in the area of human rights and refugees. The effectiveness of the EU migration and asylum policy has proven to be limited, because a national approach to the current problems and challenges prevails over the EU one. It is evident that, the European Agenda on Migration so far has been slow to be implemented, some strategic commitments have not yet been met and some others have been marginalized by different Member States. All that despite the fact that the EAM covered an immediate action plan to solve the difficulties in the Mediterranean, as well as medium and long term measures. This means that we also face a crisis of a common policy on migration and asylum in the EU – and even raises doubts whether such a policy exists, but also we are heading towards a much deeper political and institutional crisis of the EU, amplified by the potential exit of the UK from the EU (called " Brexit ") and a fundamental risk of lessened integrity and functioning of the Schengen area. The elaboration of a truly comprehensive and common migration and asylum policy at the EU level requires much more time, a revision of the legal framework (but more legal acts does not mean better); developing and sharing best (good) practices; adequate funding, but also solidarity and will to cooperate of all EU Member States. Additionally, a greater understanding and awareness of European societies in the field of migration processes, issues of human rights and mechanisms of integration of foreigners and migrants are necessary to design and effectively implement any policy.

Carleton Review of International Affairs, 1970

This paper exposes the contradictions and lack of commonality in the Common European Asylum System (CEAS), as well as the wide discrepancy between the European Union’s (EU) human rights rhetoric and exclusionary practices. It examines in detail the Dublin System, which determines the state responsible for processing an asylum claim. This examination demonstrates the differences between an appearance of unity and solidarity on asylum within the EU, but a reality of divergent policies and nationalist approaches to asylum. The failure of countries to fully apply EU law has major negative consequences for asylum seekers and refugees. Finally, the paper explores four possible future directions for the CEAS: disintegration and a return to national asylum systems, strict enforcement of existing EU law, the European Commission’s Dublin IV proposal, or a supranational EU asylum system.

National Institute Economic Review, 2005

European Asylum Policy * Policy towards asylum seekers has been a controversial topic for more than a decade. Rising numbers of asylum applications have been met with ever-tougher policies to deter them. Following a period of policy harmonisation, the EU has reached a crucial stage in the development of a new Common European Asylum System. This paper seeks to shed light on what form this should take. It summarizes the development of policy to date and it argues that these policies have been too tough, even from the point of view of EU citizens. Using an economic framework, it examines scenarios with different degrees of policy harmonisation and integration among EU countries. Finally, it argues that there is an important role for enhanced burden-sharing arrangements.

2004

, 146 pages This thesis analyzes the ignored humanitarian concerns in the development of the EU Asylum Policy. As a result of the strict migration control concerns, EU has engaged in forming a new regional refugee protection system which is tacitly based on limiting the access of protection seekers to the EU territories. In that context, the thesis aims to assess the scope and impact of the externalizing tendencies in the EU asylum policy development and thereby aims to attract the attention to the contradiction that EU falls in its human rights and refugee protection commitments while trying to prevent refugees from arriving to the Union's territories. To this aim, after giving a general account of the development of EU Asylum competence, the thesis will extensively deal with the pre-entry and the post-entry access prevention measures which act to serve to this access prevention strategy. Under pre-entry access prevention measures, the thesis will deal with the visa requirement, carrier sanctions and other complementary tools which prevent the protection seekers from ever arriving at the EU territory. Under the post-entry access prevention mechanisms the thesis will analyze the 'safe third country' and 'host third country' implementations and readmission agreements which aim to divert the v protections seekers summarily out of the EU territories. In analyzing these policies, the thesis will try to demonstrate how EU Member States try to shirk their nonrefoulment obligation, which is the heart of the refugee protection regime, through applying legitimate deemed means.

Pachocka M., Looking beyond the current migration and refugee crises in Europe: a common policy of the EU and the outlook for the future – in search of solutions, w: European Commission: Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture, Migrations: Jean Monnet Seminar 2016, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg 2017, s. 73-84. Abstract The current migration and refugee crises in Europe and the Mediterranean region capture the interest of politicians, journalists, researchers and experts, and inspire many questions about the causes and consequences of these massive migratory movements for the European Union, and about the effectiveness of the EU policy on migration and asylum. Currently, from the EU perspective at least two issues seem to be crucial: 1. how to solve the crisis situation already found in the EU, taking into consideration priority level(s) to face it – global, EU and/or national, the tools to be designed and implemented, the stakeholders to be involved in the problem-solving process; 2. what steps to take in order to prevent the deepening of the crisis and to halt the influx of new migrants to the EU, having in mind the interests of the Member States, the integrity of the EU, the overall political climate in the EU and respect for international law in the area of human rights and refugees. The effectiveness of the EU migration and asylum policy has proven to be limited, because a national approach to the current problems and challenges prevails over the EU one. It is evident that, the European Agenda on Migration so far has been slow to be implemented, some strategic commitments have not yet been met and some others have been marginalized by different Member States. All that despite the fact that the EAM covered an immediate action plan to solve the difficulties in the Mediterranean, as well as medium and long term measures. This means that we also face a crisis of a common policy on migration and asylum in the EU – and even raises doubts whether such a policy exists, but also we are heading towards a much deeper political and institutional crisis of the EU, amplified by the potential exit of the UK from the EU (called ‘Brexit’) and a fundamental risk of lessened integrity and functioning of the Schengen area. The elaboration of a truly comprehensive and common migration and asylum policy at the EU level requires much more time, a revision of the legal framework (but more legal acts does not mean better); developing and sharing best (good) practices; adequate funding, but also solidarity and will to cooperate of all EU Member States. Additionally, a greater understanding and awareness of European societies in the field of migration processes, issues of human rights and mechanisms of integration of foreigners and migrants are necessary to design and effectively implement any policy.

The European asylum system is a relatively advanced regional protection framework, in both legislative and policy terms. However, that same system lacks a mechanism to distribute responsibility fairly among the Member States, as well as legal avenues by which persons in need of protection can access it. To the backdrop of the Syrian crisis and the rising toll of migrant deaths in the Mediterranean Sea, this brief analyses achievements and shortcoming in the area of solidarity and fair-sharing of responsibility between Member States, as well as the external dimension of EU’s common asylum system. In view of the adoption by the European Commission of a “European Agenda on Migration”, it offers tangible ideas for EU policy action that could meaningfully develop this policy and help address the humanitarian tragedy on the EU’s borders.

Chapter 4: Advances in the Common European Asylum System (2013 recast), 2014

The aim of this paper is to examine the progress of European regulations on the international protection of asylum seekers. It is important to make two clarifications, even if they may be obvious: on the one hand, that the specific regulations on the protection of asylum seekers in the European Union (hereafter referred to as the EU) provide the basis for the Common European Asylum System (CEAS) and, on the other hand, that the internal regulatory harmonization of the Member States is based on these minimum requirements.