SUMMARY
On 23 September 2020, the European Commission presented a new Pact on Migration and Asylum which
included a number of legislative proposals to change the way EU member state authorities should deal
with people arriving irregularly at their external borders. Among the legislative measures proposed is a
new Regulation that allows for derogations to the EU rules on asylum and return procedures in situations
of crisis and cases of force majeure. It also foresees the possibility to grant an immediate protection
status, repeals the (never used) 2001 Temporary Protection Directive and withdraws the 2015 proposal
for a Regulation establishing a crisis relocation mechanism.
Amnesty International has the following concerns about the proposed Crisis Regulation:
- It risks having an adverse impact on the international protection regime
- It includes vague and overlapping definitions
- It lacks added value
- It risks undermining existing obligations in the field of asylum, reception and return
- It has a disproportionate and detrimental impact on the rights of individuals and will exacerbate
humanitarian crisis at borders - It uses force majeure to give open-ended justification to States to disapply EU asylum law
- It establishes an immediate and temporary protection status without adequate solidarity measures