On June 8 and 9, 2023, an EU conference of interior ministers took place, focusing on the “reform” of the EU’s migration and asylum policy. As a result, the EU interior ministers agreed on an even more repressive sealing-off, which advances the undermining of the right of asylum. The following text summarizes the key regulations. The new regulations will have further brutal consequences for People on the Move. For example, arriving people (if not directly pushbacked) will be detained directly in camps, where a 12-week fast-track process will determine whether an asylum case is possible for the individual. If not, they will be deported directly. This is made possible, among other things, with the “fiction of non-entry”, which means that the camps are declared as “transit zones” and are thus not part of a national territory. Thus, no asylum application can be filed. This is to apply to all people from allegedly “safe third countries” or to all who come to the EU via such. Criteria for third countries will be massively lowered and even parts of a state will be sufficient. For a deportation also an arbitrary connection of rejected asylum applicants to the respective third country, which is defined by the EU member states, is sufficient. What is important is not the reason for entry, but the route by which the people came. Thus, in principle, all people can be detained, because preventing entry and deportation are the first priority. Pushbacks and prison camps, where there is not even basic care, will be further normalized. More agreements with dictatorial states are to be concluded for deportations. In a reform of the Schengen Border Code, internal border control is to be further tightened when People on the Move are politically “instrumentalized.” This is also defined by the EU member states. Thus, pushbacks are de facto allowed. With the reform of the EURODAC system, the surveillance of People on the Move will be expanded through data collection and storage. Should People on the Move get through all the repressions, they are still not allowed to decide for themselves where they want to travel. The Dublin Regulation remains in place. If EU countries do not want to take people in, they can buy their way out. The money is also supposed to go into arming the external borders. Potentially, then, no country will take in people, but will continue to invest in arming the borders and other repressive measures. Even though the new regulations still have to be discussed by the EU Parliament, it can be assumed that most of the changes will be implemented in this way. Once again, the capitalist, racist and deadly character of borders, of states and of the EU is revealed.
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