Numerous human rights organizations and aid organizations for refugees are very critical of the reform of the Common European Asylum System (CEAS) adopted by the European Parliament on 10 April 2024 (tuenews reported: tun24042201). On the day before the parliamentary session, 161 associations and NGOs from all over the world had appealed to parliament not to adopt the tightening of asylum law associated with the reform.
The Catholic umbrella organization “Caritas Europa”, for example, particularly criticized the regulations “relating to the detention of families and children at the EU’s external borders and the discriminatory pre-sorting of those seeking protection and the outsourcing of the asylum issue to third countries”.
The human rights organization “Amnesty International” called the compromise “shameful”. The European institutions had agreed on an agreement that they knew would lead to even greater human suffering. For people fleeing conflict and persecution, the reform would mean “less protection and a greater risk of being confronted with human rights violations across Europe”.
“Médecins Sans Frontières warned that the reform would not help solve the humanitarian crisis at the EU’s external borders, instead the system would force people to choose even more dangerous escape routes. “Dirty deals with unsafe countries will also result in people being detained in places where their lives, health and safety are at risk. Asylum procedures under detention-like conditions at the external borders will not only lead to fear and insecurity among those seeking protection, but also further undermine the right to asylum,” the medical aid organization continued.
Pro Asyl” expressed a similar view: the reform represents a “low point for refugee protection in Europe”. In addition to the existing fences, walls, surveillance techniques and pushbacks, there would now “foreseeably be even more detention and isolation of people seeking protection at the external borders and new deals with autocratic governments that violate human rights”.
The German “Paritätische Gesamtverband”, which speaks for welfare organizations and groups, stated: “The regulations for asylum seekers in Europe will be massively tightened, human rights violations, especially at the EU’s external borders, will not decrease but increase.” The fact that “most of the regulations adopted have been made in the form of regulations that are directly applicable in the member states is particularly critical. According to the rules of European law, these take precedence over the currently valid regulations of German asylum law.”
“Pro Asyl” has put together some fictitious scenarios of what refugees can expect in the future under the new regulations:
GEAS-Reform im EU-Parlament: Historischer Tiefpunkt für den Flüchtlingsschutz in Europa | PRO ASYL
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Flüchtlingsunterkunft Tübingen. Foto: tünews INTERNATIONAL / Mostafa Elyasian.
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