From Europe to Bruxelles: Say NO to the Pact on Migration and Asylum!

On April 10th, the European Parliament will vote on the New Pact on Migration and Asylum. This will have catastrophic consequences for the lives of people on the move across and beyond Europe, institutionalizing the most brutal and repressive practices. 

SOLIDAR joins over 50 civil society organisations, networks and Trade Unions active at the European or national level to call for a mobilization in Brussels at Place Luxembourg, in front of the European Parliament on 10th April at 3 pm as Members of the European Parliament will vote on the same day for the Migration Pact.

We will not be silent nor will we join celebrations for the systematic dismantling of human rights in Europe. We will be there together with affected communities, civil society organizations, collectives and international human rights groups raising our voices to confront EU leaders and politicians who are supporting this shameful agreement incompatible with fundamental rights.

We stand firm in our belief in the inherent dignity and worth of every human being, irrespective of race, colour, gender, sexual orientation, religious orientation, nationality, political opinion,  standing in solidarity to those impacted by these unjust and cruel policies.

Across borders, we stand united with people on the move, migrants and asylum seekers, we will keep fighting for justice and dignity. Our shared humanity transcends geographical boundaries, we will resist and keep fighting for a future where justice and solidarity prevail.

Why mobilising?

The New pact creates a system whereby the right to seek asylum in the EU is severely threatened and will engender a proliferation of human rights violations against people across Europe due to their migration status. Taken together, these new legislations will usher in a new system for ‘managing migration’ in the EU that is characterised by:

• De facto detention at borders with no exemption for families with children of all ages, accelerated, substandard procedures to assess asylum claims rather than full and fair assessments, and an emphasis on return procedures with lowered safeguards.
• Far more asylum applicants will end up in border procedures and, through the ‘legal fiction of non-entry’, will not be considered as on EU territory, which would lead to lower safeguards and heightens the risk of human rights violations and pushbacks at borders. Even unaccompanied children can be held in border procedures when state authorities consider them a ‘danger to national security or public order’. Moreover, experience has shown that containing large numbers of people in border areas for prolonged periods leads to the chronic overcrowding and inhumane conditions, as witnessed on the Aegean islands.
• Through the broadening of the ‘safe third country’ principle, people asking for asylum will be declared inadmissible and increasingly deported to countries outside of the EU on the basis of a widely-defined connection with those countries, heightening the risk of refoulement.  In the past, this has manifested in failed agreements like the EU-Turkey deal, externalising the processing of asylum claims to third countries.

First co-signatories:

Seebrücke, Sea-Watch, European Network Against Racism (ENAR), Abolish Frontex, Agir pour la Paix, EuroMed Rights, Danish Refugee Council (DRC), Stop GEAS, Interventionistische Linke (IL), Project Elpida, 11.11.11… Flemish Refugee Action (Vluchtelingenwerk Vlaanderen), SOLIDAR, Emergencia Frontera Sur Motril, From Sea to the City, Solidary Wheels, Coordinadora Obrim Fronteres, PRO ASYL, Irídia – Centre per la Defensa dels Drets Humans, València és Refugi, País Valencià pels Drets Humans, NO ONE IS ILLEGAL, Red SOS Refugiados Europa, Be Aware And Share (BAAS), Network for Children’s Rights (Greece), Migration-control.info, MEDITERRANEA Saving Humans, Plataforma de personas refugiadas de Cáceres, Asociación Sonrisas en Acción, I Have Rights, PAR Almansa, Colectivos en Lucha Extremadura, Pour La Solidarité

You can download flyers in English, Spanish, French and German. Whether you can join physically the mobilisation or not, you can communicate this to Julie Martinaud (julie.martinaud@solidar.org) until Friday 29th March EOB (with your logo attached) as a final update of signatories will be done on 2nd April. If you can join in person, you can follow updates on this event on this Facebook page.