Chasing Efficiency: Can operational changes fix European asylum systems? Bertelsmann Stiftung Making Asylum Systems Work in Europe Initiative February 2020.

Beirens, Hanne (2020) Chasing Efficiency: Can operational changes fix European asylum systems? Bertelsmann Stiftung Making Asylum Systems Work in Europe Initiative February 2020. UNSPECIFIED.

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Abstract

The heightened arrivals of asylum seekers and migrants on European shores in 2015–16 sent policymakers across the continent scrambling for new strategies to manage migration. Proposals to reform the European Union’s legal framework for asylum were the first out of the starting blocks but, several years later, no such agreement has been reached. And with new EU leadership having taken office in late 2019, Brussels is hungry for fresh ideas that will either revive or reform the Common European Asylum System (CEAS). Crucial to this search will be a recognition that, while deficiencies still plague Europe’s asylum systems, these systems have changed significantly since the onset of the migration and refugee crisis—even in the absence of legal reforms. The mounting pressure on asylum systems as arrivalsrose in 2014 and 2015 left European countries, and especially those on the asylum seekers’ travel routes, no other choice but to tackle deficiencies head on, from incomplete registration of newcomers to poor reception conditions and lengthy asylum procedures. These and other problems were neither new nor unknown to national and EU policymakers, but the institutional crises that followed the large-scale arrivals fostered change where multiple rounds of EU legal reforms and funding from the Asylum, Migration, and Integration Fund (AMIF) had struggled to do so. This sense of urgency was underpinned by recognition that fair and swift asylum procedures were needed not only to guarantee access to protection for those in need, but also to deter misuse of asylum systems and to maintain public and political support. State and nonstate actors began to dissect asylum and return systems and find answers to persistent questions, including why reaching a final decision on certain asylum cases took so long and why certain rejected asylum seekers were so difficult to return to their countries of origin. A common conclusion was that these issues demanded not (solely) legal but often process-focused solutions. Across Europe, Member States tested new or revamped old ideas to improve the operation of their asylum systems as they register those seeking protection, offer them reception and material assistance, investigate their protection claims, and then, depending on the outcome of their cases, integrate or return them. This was a period of intense innovation, driven by necessity. The task now is to take what has been learned about practices that foster swift, high-quality asylum processes and explore how the European Union can best promote their application across the bloc.

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