On April 10, the European Parliament narrowly approved (300 votes in favor, 270 against) the rules of the Migration and Asylum Pact.
Its main goal is to manage migration flows more efficiently and securely, and to bring order to a dysfunctional and conflict-ridden system. However, behind this facade of order and control lies a dehumanizing reality that violates the dignity and fundamental rights of migrants and refugees.
The Pact prioritizes border externalization, increases police presence at borders, and criminalizes irregular migration.
The Pact’s narrative is filled with dehumanizing terms like "migration flows," "migration burden," and "illegal," and speaks of "redistributing" migrants based on the employment needs of different countries. This dehumanization of language creates a hostile and xenophobic atmosphere among European receiving countries, fostering discrimination and racism against migrants. The Pact fails to address the structural causes of migration, such as poverty, war, violence, climate crisis, loss of livelihoods, or persecution, ignoring the desperation and circumstances that force people to leave their countries.
It does not offer lasting solutions nor guarantees the protection of migrants’ dignity and human rights. This Pact represents a step backward in the protection of people and in the construction of a just and inclusive Europe.
A new approach to migration is necessary, one based on solidarity and shared responsibility, which implies welcoming, protecting, promoting, integrating, providing legal and medical assistance, prohibiting arbitrary detentions and degrading treatment, and respecting the principle of non-expulsion to their countries of origin.
The freedom of every individual to choose whether to migrate or not is an inalienable right tied to human dignity.
If circumstances push people to migrate in search of more humane living conditions, it is the duty of states to create legal and safe routes to combat human trafficking and illegal smuggling.
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