The UN’s refugee agency UNHCR has called on Sweden and Spain to use their 2023 EU Council presidencies to ensure that the EU builds on its experience in taking in millions of Ukrainian refugees and to protect forcibly displaced people.
In a paper published on Wednesday (11 January), the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights urged the two governments to “stand in solidarity with all refugees and asylum-seekers, wherever they may come from”.
“The humanitarian spirit and solidarity shown by EU countries last year towards refugees from Ukraine clearly demonstrate Europe’s capacity to welcome and protect forcibly displaced people in an organized and effective way,” said Gonzalo Vargas Llosa, UNHCR’s EU Representative.
Last year, EU countries received over 4 million refugees fleeing Ukraine following Russia’s invasion. However, policing of the bloc’s southern and Balkan borders for refugees and migrants from Africa and the Middle East continues to be controversial.
UNHCR states that progress is dependent on the draft EU Pact on Migration and Asylum finally being agreed and implemented across the bloc and is contingent on all EU states fully upholding the right to seek asylum.
“UNHCR strongly advises against undermining this potential reform through any further EU proposals that risk downgrading asylum obligations, standards and practices and shrinking protection space in Europe,” the statement added.
The agency also condemned the fact that “violent pushbacks and serious human rights violations continue at EU borders. These violations endanger lives and undermine human rights, including access to asylum as well as the right to life.”
It also urged the EU to “focus on ensuring access to fair and efficient asylum procedures, as well as creating functioning solidarity and responsibility-sharing mechanisms without resorting to derogations”.
Migration reform, and particularly the negotiation of the handful of legislative files that constitute the Pact on Migration and Asylum, will be in the spotlight over the next 12 months.
Earlier this week, Sweden’s Ambassador to the EU Lars Danielsson told media platform Devex that the bloc needed to be “a bit smarter in combining positive incentives and, let’s call it, negative incentives,” to pressure countries that do not do enough to take back or prevent migrants from travelling to the EU.
That could see the EU seeking to limit trade access and cutting development aid to countries that it deems are not controlling their borders.
Danielsson added that there “window of opportunity” to strike a deal on the migration pact within the next year ahead of the European elections in May 2024, after which a new European Commission will also take office.
Diplomatic sources have indicated to EURACTIV that significant progress on the files is unlikely be made until the second half of the year when Spain takes over the EU Council presidency. One EU diplomatic source told EURACTIV that migration will be Spain’s main priority.
The status of the post-Cotonou Agreement with the African, Caribbean and Pacific community is also being held hostage by the EU’s internal disagreements on migration policy, with Hungary refusing the ratify the new treaty and accusing the European Commission of seeking to “legalise migration, undermine the fight against illegal migration and spread gender ideology”.
Source: euractiv.com
