Context: The European Union and Member states have reached an agreement to reform the bloc’s migration policy through ‘New Pact on Migration and Asylum’.

New Pact on Migration and Asylum – European Commission

• The reform includes speedier vetting of irregular arrivals, creating border detention centers, and accelerated deportation for rejected asylum applicants.
• The pact still needs to be formally approved by the European Council, representing the 27 member nations, and the European Parliament, before it enters the bloc’s law books, likely in 2024.

What’s in the New Pact on Migration and Asylum deal?

• Screening Regulation: It envisions a pre-entry procedure to swiftly examine an asylum seeker’s profile and collect basic information such as nationality, age, fingerprints and facial image.
• Eurodac Regulation: It is a large-scale database that will store the biometric evidence collected during the screening process. 
• Asylum Procedures Regulation: It sets two possible steps for migrants: the traditional asylum procedure, which usually takes several months to complete, and a fast-tracked border procedure, meant to last a maximum of 12 weeks. 
• Asylum and Migration Management Regulation: It establishes a system of “mandatory solidarity” that will offer countries three options to manage migration flows: 
  • relocate a certain number of asylum seekers,
  • pay a contribution for each claimant they refuse to relocate,
  • finance operational support. 
• Crisis Regulation: It foresees exceptional rules that will apply when the bloc’s asylum system is threatened by a sudden and massive arrival of refugees, as was the case during  COVID-19 pandemic. 
• • In these circumstances, national authorities will be allowed to apply tougher measures, including longer detention periods.

Must Read: International Migration Outlook 2023

News Source: Euronews