We, the undersigned researchers working on EU migration and asylum policy, express our deep concern in relation to the proposal for an Asylum Procedure Regulation (APR) upon which the EU institutions reached an agreement on 20 December 2023. We deem the introduction of mandatory border procedures as dangerous, inhumane, unfeasible and ineffective, and we strongly oppose its final ratification.

We are a group of researchers working on EU asylum migration and asylum policy from different disciplines, angles and theoretical perspectives. We study how EU migration and asylum policies are agreed upon, transposed into member states legislations and implemented. We reflect upon their effectiveness in guaranteeing that migrants and refugees are treated with dignity and in respect of the human rights that the EU pleads to promote in its Charter of Fundamental Rights. We advise on how policies can be shaped as to ensure that our societies can manage migration in a fair and orderly way, aiming to create positive opportunities for both EU and third-country citizens living in the EU.

Many of us are able to do research thanks to funding provided by the European Commission, such as the Horizon Europe or ERC programmes. This allows us to test whether EU migration and asylum policy is able to deliver these goals. It enables us to provide advice on how to enhance EU migration and asylum policy for the benefit of the whole society. Notwithstanding EU funding for research into how migration and migration policies actually work, our knowledge and expertise is too often overlooked by the EU institutions.

Our research outputs, and even a report adopted by the EU Parliament itself clearly show that the “very nature of border procedures makes it very difficult to provide full procedural guarantees” in the assessment of asylum applications. They show that the detention and deprivation of liberty that these procedures entail have a severe impact on the fundamental rights of asylum seekers. Applicants who have their applications assessed in border procedures systematically lack access to legal assistance and to legal remedies, and to proper health and psychological care. Victims of torture and sexual abuse and other migrants with invisible vulnerabilities are hardly identified and do not therefore receive the special support they need.

Detention of migrants at borders to assess the “manifestly unfoundedness” of applications has been part of the European agenda and of member states’ practice since the late 80s. Despite not having attained the objective of reducing flows, over the decades the EU has further strengthened and widened the scope of this measure, pushing migrants towards ever more dangerous routes and leading to the creation of camps and hotspots at its most southern borders and beyond.

Lastly, recent experiences such as the fast-track border procedures on the Aegean islands in the context of the EU-Türkiye statement taught us that border procedures are not only inhumane and ineffective, but also extremely difficult to implement in practice. They represent a remarkable economic and logistic burden on first line countries. While all the past solidarity mechanisms among EU member states have sadly failed in creating a fair system that distributes responsibilities of protecting refugees across the EU, there is very little hope that the new system foreseen by the Pact will bring any change in this regard.

While these findings suggest that the use of border procedures should be strongly discouraged, the APR renders them mandatory for certain categories of asylum seekers and generalises their use. We expect that, should it be adopted, the APR will result in creating more human suffering, will not be effective in managing inflows and will place a heavier burden on the shoulders of border countries.

For these reasons, we call on the EU Parliament and the Council of the EU to review their positions and refrain from adopting the APR. We call on EU member states to adopt more humane responses to the issue of migration by promoting safe pathways for people in need of protection and safeguarding the rights of asylum seekers and migrants in line with international human rights and refugee law.