The European Parliament passed legislation on a series of controversial reforms to the bloc's migration laws over the management of irregular migrants to strip the far-right from obtaining votes as elections in June approaches.
The members of the European Parliament voted on the so-called Pact on Migration and Asylum, regulations and policies meant to help address the thorny issue of who should take responsibility for migrants when they arrive and whether other EU countries should be obliged to help.
The proceedings were briefly interrupted by a small but noisy group of demonstrators in the public gallery who wore shirts marked "this pact kills” and shouted "vote no!”
The 27 EU member countries must now endorse the reform package, possibly in a vote in late April, before it can enter force.
The plan was drawn up after 1.3 million people, mostly those fleeing war in Syria and Iraq, sought refuge in Europe in 2015. The EU’s asylum system collapsed, reception centers were overwhelmed in Greece and Italy, and countries further north built barriers to stop people entering.
But few have admitted to being happy with the new policy response to one of Europe’s biggest political crises, and even the lawmakers who drafted parts of the new regulations are unwilling to support the entire reform package.
"I’m not going to open a bottle of champagne after this,” Dutch lawmaker Sophie i’nt Veld, who drew up the assembly’s position on migrant reception conditions, told reporters on the eve of the plenary session in Brussels. She said she planned to abstain from some of the votes.
In’t Veld described the pact as "the bare minimum” in terms of a policy response, but she does not want to torpedo it by voting against. "We will not have another opportunity to come to an agreement,” she said.
Swedish parliamentarian Malin Bjork, who worked on refugee resettlement, said that the pact does not respond to "any of the questions it was set to solve.”
She said the reform package "undermines the individual right to seek asylum” in Europe because it would build on plans that some EU countries already have to process migrants abroad. Italy has concluded one such deal with Albania.
"We cannot have a situation where people systematically, in their thousands, die on their way seeking protection and refuge in Europe,” Bjork told reporters.
The new rules include controversial measures: facial images and fingerprints could be taken from children from the age of 6, and people may be detained during screening. Fast-track deportation could be used on those not permitted to stay.
"The pact will lead to more detention and de facto detention at the EU’s external borders, including for families with children, which is in clear violation of international law,” said Marta Gionco from Picum, a network of migrant rights defense organizations.
Mainstream political parties want to secure agreement on the pact ahead of Europe-wide elections on June 6-9. Migration is likely to be a campaign issue, and they believe the new reforms address concerns about an issue that has been a consistent vote-winner for far-right parties.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Wednesday Poland will not accept a European Union immigrant relocation mechanism despite the European Parliament's approval of legislation meant to curb migration into the continent.
"We will find ways so that even if the migration pact comes into force in roughly unchanged form, we will protect Poland against the relocation mechanism," Tusk told reporters.
He added that EU countries needed to focus on protecting their own borders.
Poland had previously argued it should be exempt from the so-called solidarity mechanism in the new legislation as it has helped and taken in the largest number of Ukrainian refugees since Russia's invasion of the country in 2022.
Migration has been a hot-button issue in the EU since more than a million people – mostly Syrian refugees – arrived across the Mediterranean in 2015, catching the bloc unprepared amid scenes of chaos and suffering.
More than 46,000 people have entered the EU so far this year outside of regular border crossings, according to U.N. data, which also estimates 400 people perished while attempting to get in.
After approval by the European Parliament, the legislation needs to be rubber-stamped this month by member states. They would then have two years to implement it.
