Capability Gap

[1.CGF.2]

Need for a common European migration and asylum policy

Background

The scope of EU asylum and migration policy along with the additional challenge of parallel applicability, leads to lack of solidarity and consensus among EU member states concerning migration and asylum policy as a whole. This in turn creates the following operational challenges:  

  • Problematic regulation of borders as there is no cohesion in the migration policies applied by two neighbouring countries
    • EU Member States (EU-MS) and EU Third Countries (EU 3C) (e. Greece and Turkey). 
  • Lack of coordination for rescue operations as well as an unclear division of tasks between involved agencies – that may lead to critical loss of valuable time 
  • Complications in employing similar treatment of refugees and asylum seekers in all European nations, which may lead to discriminatory practices 
  • Non-homogeneous access to the procedures of international protection.

October 2020 Workshop Findings

The existence of different directives, national legislations, and EU Legislation constitutes a major challenge, so a unified legal framework is an imperative need for practitioners. Different procedures result in different outcomes related to the admittance of refugees and asylum seekers across EU Member States. In the case of unaccompanied minors there is a huge gap in issues of protection and detection, as well as provisions for conditions in detention centers for minors. EU legislation is effectively communicated to practitioners, however, the implementation involves different administrations, governments, activities, etc., thus cooperation among countries is imperative, to achieve same protection of the fundamental rights of individuals. Furthermore, the lack of a homogeneous access to the asylum procedure leads to discriminatory practices and complicates the process with incongruities between national and international laws regarding protection.
There is no need for more European legislation but, instead, a higher need for common practices or guidelines for practitioners. In the new Migration Pact the European Commission has drawn a proposal of amendment to the Dublin Regulation, which will be replaced by a common framework called “Asylum and migration management regulation”. The idea is that asylum and detention will come together in one single document that contains both procedures. The document will include determination of which country will handle asylum applications. However, COVID-19 may pose difficulties in the application of these regulations and provisions.

Operational Challenges

Restricted to MEDEA Members

General description of operational capability

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Additional Considerations

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