Since 2016, the European Commission has proposed multiple reforms, but negotiations stalled because of opposition from far-right governments in Eastern Europe. Viktor Orbán, Hungary’s prime minister, opposed reforms in 2018, saying: “We must send migrants back to their countries. Brussels says we cannot do it. They also had said it was impossible to stop migrants on land, but we did it.”

Substantively, the new pact consists of six major reforms – all of which focus on securitizing borders and making it easier to deport people, with, critics argue, little protection for migrants and asylum seekers.

The first regulation expands the EU’s biometric database for asylum seekers, EURODAC, to include the fingerprints, face photos and biographical information of all individuals aged 6 and above. Previously, the database included only fingerprints – not images or biographic details – of people above the age of 14. The pact also makes it easier for police to access the database.

Second, the asylum and migration management regulation, or AMMR, continues the Dublin Regulation requiring asylum applications to be reviewed by the first member state they enter.

This means that Greece and Italy will continue to process most asylum claims. But the AMMR does allow transfers to a third country based on an applicant’s family ties, prior residency or education in another member state.

These first two regulations will have immediate legal impact when endorsed by the the 27 EU member countries in the European Council before June 2024.

The other four directives must be incorporated into EU member states’ domestic laws within the next two years. Together, these other four directives work to make it harder for people to make asylum claims in the EU.

For example, the pact institutionalizes the policy that “hotspot” reception centers on islands off Greece and Italy are transit zones and thus not EU territory. This effectively excises many Mediterranean islands from EU territory in order to block asylum seekers from their full rights.

Another directive revises asylum procedures to fast-track deportations of people who have traveled via a “safe third country” or if they are from a country with recognition rates – the proportion of asylum applications that are approved from a given country of origin – below 20%.

Human rights groups criticize the pact because fast-track deportations are based on group characteristics, instead of individual review. They claim that the reforms also undermine the right of appeal – sometimes deporting people before an appeals decision is finalized – and expand detention.

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