Prof. Vincent Chetail & Mariana Ferolla Vallandro do Valle have written a blog post on: The Asylum Procedure Regulation and the Erosion of Refugee’s Rights.

The images of boats packed with people arriving on the shores of Europe has fixed public imagination and continues to frame the political debate. According to the rumor spread by mass media and politicians, there is an invasion of ‘economic migrants’ who are abusing asylum procedures to enter into the EU territory irregularly. Although this rhetoric is all but true, it represents the main premise of the Pact on Migration and Asylum.

Vincent Chetail & Mariana Ferolla Vallandro do Valle demonstrate that the procedural devices introduced by the new Regulation jeopardise the right to seek asylum and the principle of non-refoulement. Summary rejection of asylum claims has become the new normal through the generalization of accelerated and border procedures. Despite a core common of procedural guarantees, the double standard between these special procedures and the ordinary one exacerbates the risk of illegal refoulement.

The gap has never been so huge between law and practice at the external borders of the EU: the asylum procedure is becoming a tool of exclusion rather than a means for identifying those who are in need of protection from persecution and armed conflict.

The article can be downloaded here