12 June 2026
Today, the European Pact on Migration and Asylum enters into force. Behind the rhetoric of “orderly migration management” and “European solidarity”, this Pact in fact entrenches a policy of suspicion, detention and exclusion directed at migrants, refugees and asylum seekers.
European Democratic Lawyers (AED/EDL) denounces a reform that marks a deeply troubling turning point in the history of European integration. For the first time, the European Union is institutionalising on a large scale mechanisms that undermine access to international protection, weaken procedural safeguards and normalise the deprivation of liberty of people who have committed no offence.
Under the guise of administrative efficiency, the Pact organises the sorting and filtering of human beings at Europe’s borders. Accelerated procedures and legal fictions of “non-entry” are designed above all to facilitate refusals of admission and removals, while restricting the ability of those concerned to exercise their rights. For thousands of people, access to effective legal assistance, comprehensive information and meaningful judicial remedies risks becoming little more than a formality.
AED/EDL considers this development to be a direct attack on the fundamental principles underpinning the rule of law. The right to asylum is not a concession granted by States when political circumstances permit. It is a fundamental right guaranteed by international law, the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and the common constitutional traditions of the Member States.
The Pact is based on a dangerous premise: treating people on the move primarily as a threat to be contained rather than as rights holders entitled to protection. This approach fuels the criminalisation of migration, legitimises border closure policies and reinforces xenophobic narratives that are gaining ground across Europe.
AED/EDL also condemns the growing externalisation of European responsibilities to third countries, including States whose human rights records often raise serious concerns. The purpose of this policy is not to protect people but to keep them away from European territory and from the judicial protection they should be able to access there. Europe cannot credibly claim to defend human rights worldwide while organising their circumvention at its own borders.
We reject the normalisation of detention, pushbacks and removals as standard instruments of European migration policy. We reject the reduction of access to justice to a mere procedural formality. We reject the progressive hollowing out of the right to asylum in the name of short-term political expediency.
AED/EDL calls upon lawyers, bar associations, judges, academics, human rights organisations and civil society as a whole to mobilise against the violations of fundamental safeguards that this Pact makes possible.
More than ever, national and European courts must ensure that border control cannot be invoked to justify the erosion of fundamental rights. The rule of law does not stop at Europe’s borders.
Faced with this regression, AED/EDL will continue to stand alongside all those who defend the right to asylum, the right to an effective remedy, freedom and human dignity.
History will judge harshly a Europe that, when confronted with the realities of exile and displacement, chooses the erosion of rights over their protection.
European Democratic Lawyers (AED/EDL)