Distrubing the European vote on the New Migration Pact

The new pact

‘Low risk’, ‘fast track’, ‘solidarity’ – euphemisms for easier deportations and less accommodation for asylum seekers. The New Pact of Asylum and Migration alters the exiting Common European Asylum System (CEAS) and heavily restricts the individual right to asylum in Europe.

With this pact, a new step in the asylum procedure is implemented – asylum seekers must go through a ‘screening’ procedure that decides on whether they will have an extended procedure, or a ‘fast track’ procedure based on where they are coming from. That means that not the individual history of suffered persecution is considered, but just a statistical calculation of ‘low’ risk in the country of origin leads to people being put in a fast-track procedure. More countries will be declared ‘safe’ and asylum seekers risk deportation to countries like Turkey and Tunisia, which signed migration deals with the EU. Furthermore, this Pact reforms the Dublin accords: member states now don’t have the obligation to accommodate asylum seekers, but can opt to, under the guise of ‘solidarity’, pay off their responsibility to other member states or provide operational support in border control.

Disturbing the voting

This pact stands as an example for the structural racism of the EU and the Council’s and parliament’s willingness to restrict human rights of the most vulnerable members of our society. This is why a group of activists penetrated the European Parliament and disturbed the voting procedure, to show that civil society in Europe is willing to stand in solidarity with asylum seekers.

Confronting the parliamentarians with their responsibility for abolishing the individual right to asylum in Europe, the group stood up from the audience balcony, shouted “VOTE NO”, their t-shirts showing the slogan “THIS PACT KILLS”. The paper planes they threw towards the parliamentarians listed the names of people that drowned in the Mediterranean. Some parliamentarians who have always been critical of the CEAS stood up and applauded, and the voting was disturbed for at least 3 minutes. For once, the protests against Europe’s migration pacts did not happen at the doors, but right inside one its core castles!

Follow up

Many international media such as the Guardian, the Brussels Times and the Le Monde published on the action. While the pact was adopted, the implementation needs time. The group plans to keep on watching closely the development of this implementation, that is often going unnoticed and unpublished.

With the support and solidarity from Het Actiefonds, the group will continue to show their solidarity with the people on the move who hope to find protection and a better life in Europe. Because freedom of movement, migration and asylum should be accessible to everyone.