More than 90 human rights and humanitarian organizations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have called on the European Union to abandon its new migration and asylum policy, arguing that the policy undermines the right to seek asylum and violates international commitments, according to Anadolu Agency.
In a joint statement released on Tuesday, the organizations emphasized that states must guarantee the right to seek and enjoy asylum to ensure refugees can access protection, citing Article 18 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, which mandates that all EU member states uphold their asylum responsibilities.
The groups urged the EU and its member states to safeguard the right to territorial asylum in Europe, highlighting ghlighted that discussions on externalizing asylum processing have been consistently criticized and rejected over the years.
The organizations noted that global protection needs are higher than ever, with low- and middle-income countries hosting 75% of the world’s refugees. Despite this, there has been a recent surge in proposals to shift the processing of asylum applications to non-EU countries.
Outsourcing asylum responsibilities undermines the Refugee Convention and makes it harder for people to access justice when their rights are violated, the organizations warned, pointing to Australia’s offshore detention scheme as an example of how such models lead to prolonged confinement, mental and physical harm, and persistent human rights abuses.
The groups also highlighted the financial inefficiency of these measures. The UK’s projected cost of £1.8 million ($1.95 million) per asylum seeker returned to Rwanda exemplifies the waste of public funds that could be better invested in fair and humane asylum systems.
According to the European Union Asylum Agency, asylum applications in the European Union reached more than one million in 2023, the highest number in seven years, especially from Syrians and Afghans, escaping military conflicts and deteriorating humanitarian conditions.
Despite reforms under the EU’s recently announced Pact on Migration and Asylum, the organizations stressed that transferring asylum seekers outside EU territory is not provided for, urging the EU to focus on implementing a human rights-centered asylum system in line with international law.
