EU’s Migration Pact Is A Blow To Migrant Domestic Workers’ Rights

The migration pact between the European Commission, the European Parliament, and European Union member states is a blow to migrant domestic worker rights. 

The agreement to overhaul the European Union’s asylum and migration system will severely affect the rights of migrants, asylum seekers, and refugees. 

On 20 December, European countries struck a key migration deal to overhaul their joint migration system. The agreement covers major pieces of EU legislation relating to migration and data collection. 

According to Human Rights Watch, the migration pact can be both ineffective and abusive. It can be dangerous for migrants and refugees. The migration pact makes it easier to deport failed asylum seekers and limit entry of migrants into Europe.

EU’s migration pact is a blow to migrant domestic worker rights

The European Council on Exiles and Refugees, a pan-European network of refugee-assisting non-governmental organizations, called the EU’s migration pact as “byzantine in their complexity and Orban-esque in their cruelty.”

Under the migration pact, migrants who arrive irregularly, including those who start journeys at sea, will be detained and sent back to their home countries. Children as young as six years old will be fingerprinted under the new migration deal.

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The plan, named the European Union migration and asylum pact, gives authorities a greater sense of control over their borders. 

Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the European Commission, said, “Migration is a European challenge that requires European solutions.”

In recent months, Greece, Italy, Malta, and Cyprus were engaged in unlawful pushbacks of migrants. Migrants seeking safety in Europe are often met on Greece’s Aegean islands with violence. They are handcuffed, strip-searched, and forcibly sent back to sea. Sometimes, migrants’ mobile phones, money, and medications were also confiscated.

The migration pact would make it harder for asylum seekers and migrants to move on from the countries they arrive in, which is the denial of the right to asylum.

The migration pact has already been approved by negotiators from all E.U. institutions. The migration pact aimed at collecting fingerprints and facial imagery of asylum seekers and migrants, including individuals as young as six, is a blow to migrant’s rights.