Rethinking EU migration and asylum policies: Managing immigration jointly with countries of origin and transit. Stiftung MEDAM Assessment Report on Asylum and Migration Policies in Europe 2019 Mercator Dialogue on Asylum and Migration (MEDAM)

Barslund, Mikkel and Lücke, Matthias and Ruhs, Martin (2019) Rethinking EU migration and asylum policies: Managing immigration jointly with countries of origin and transit. Stiftung MEDAM Assessment Report on Asylum and Migration Policies in Europe 2019 Mercator Dialogue on Asylum and Migration (MEDAM). UNSPECIFIED.

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Abstract

The arrival of more than one million asylum seekers in Europe in 2015 exposed serious flaws in the EU’s asylum system. While the inflow of irregular migrants has long subsided, the political landscape and public debate in Europe have been fundamentally and permanently altered. Multiple efforts over the years to reform the European asylum system and to make it resilient to possible future surges in refugee movements have reached an impasse. Since early 2016, the EU has implemented far-reaching agreements with neighboring countries to curb irregular immigration, including the EU-Turkey understanding, the closure of the Western Balkans migration route, and support for search and rescue operations by the Libyan coast guard and the return to Libya of individuals rescued at sea. However, the EU and its member states have not used the respite offered by fewer irregular migrants arriving in Europe to address important shortcomings: key provisions of the EU-Turkey agreement are not functional, especially for the return of migrants from the Greek islands to Turkey; asylum systems in Western Balkan countries are underdeveloped and would be overwhelmed quickly if migrant flows were to resurge; and the human rights of migrants in Libya are routinely violated.

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