A11new: For a common migration and asylum policy

11 November 2023 (lapsing). Renewed for Federal Committee April 2026 Submitted
by Political Commission 3: External Affairs & Global Governance

Conflicts, political turmoil, economic disparities as well as climate change
generate migration towards Europe. The European Union (EU), so far, has proven
itself totally unprepared to tackle the human rights violations and humanitarian
crisis faced by refugees and migrants, especially at its external borders.
Member States are reacting unilaterally and against the common European
interest. Unilateral actions are ineffective and damaging to major European
achievements and values, such as the Schengen Agreement, peaceful cooperation
between Member States and human rights. The Young European Federalists urges the
EU to give a stronger common response to this global challenge, in the field of
migration, asylum and border control policies.

JEF Europe,

1. Emphasising that the fundamental rights and duties of a human being declared
in the European Convention on Human Rights, the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights, the 1951 Geneva Convention and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the
European Union must always be respected;

1. Acknowledging that recent refugee and migration patterns have been markedly
different in both character and impact on different Member States;

2. Alarmed by the persisting human rights violations and humanitarian crises
faced by migrants and refugees in Europe, especially taking into account wars
and instability;

3. Noting that conflicts, war, human rights abuses, political persecution, lack
of perspectives, climate change and growing economic disparities will continue
to lead to migrant and refugee arrivals in Europe if these root causes of
migration are not seriously addressed;

4. Acknowledging that the charge of welcoming refugees is left to countries
neighbouring conflicts or other humanitarian disasters and that these countries
are often hosting numbers far beyond their capacities;

5. Highlights the need for further effective and tangible solidarity with Member
States on the Union's external borders experiencing most of the arrivals to
ensure that they can provide the highest standards of dignified immediate
reception;

6. Deploring that the Member States have sidelined the EU in migration and have
been unwilling to develop a serious common strategy, have been blocking
Commission proposals for a common approach and have prioritised a shallow and
populist understanding of the "national interest" at the cost of effective and
reasonable common migration and asylum policy;

7. Further deploring that the present decision-making procedures are ineffective
and exploitable, allowing a small minority, even a single bad-faith actor, to
stall decision making indefinitely;

8. Believing that the Schengen area and the freedom of movement are two of the
greatest achievements of the EU and that they should not only be preserved, but
expanded;

9. Noting the successful conclusion and adoption of the EU Pact on Migration and
Asylum, which will become applicable as of mid-2026, and acknowledging the
decrease in irregular arrivals and asylum applications recorded in 2025, which
has created a window for effective implementation;

10. Noting with concern the European Parliament's approval of amendments
broadening the "safe third country" concept, removing the requirement of a link
between the asylum seeker and the country of transfer, and eliminating the
suspensive effect of appeals, thereby weakening procedural safeguards and
triggering a race to the bottom in migrant protection standards;

11. Deeply concerned by the European Parliament's approval of a new return
regulation allowing detention of migrants, including families and minors, for
extended periods, expanding data surveillance, and paving the way for offshore
deportation centres, which raises serious concerns about compliance with
fundamental rights;

12. Deploring that the EU is outsourcing migration management flows by entering
into agreements with third countries (Albania, Egypt, Libya, Mauritania, Tunisia
and Türkiye) often without adequate human rights safeguards;

13. Deploring the EU's plans to fund a Maritime Rescue Coordination Center in
eastern Libya under Commander Khalifa Haftar's control, which would extend the
"pullback mechanism" already operating in western Libya, resulting in
interceptions at sea and returns to Libyan authorities where migrants face
arbitrary detention, extortion, and inhuman treatment;

14. Condemning the continued formal and informal practices of migration
externalisation that actively subvert the principle of non-refoulement,
including pushbacks, as documented in judgments of the Court of Justice of the
European Union, which strengthened Frontex's legal responsibility in pushback
operations;

15. Regretting that the EU has given billions of euros to Türkiye since March
2016 to detain migrants and refugees in degrading conditions, while
acknowledging that the agreement helped to control migration streams at its
peak;

16. Condemning the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding between the EU and
Tunisia, signed in July 2023 which paid little regard to the ongoing gross human
rights

abuses by the regime against asylum seekers in the country as well as against
its own citizens;

17. Noting the launch of the new Mediterranean Pact, which aims to strengthen
ties with Mediterranean countries, while civil society organisations have raised
concerns about limited consultation and insufficient attention to human rights;

18. Condemning smugglers of migrants and human traffickers for the inhuman
treatment, exploitation and endangerment of innocent lives purely for financial
profit;

19. Further concerned that externalisation strategies might be more broadly
replicated by other countries bordering the EU, instrumentalising refugees and
migrants for financial gain and leverage over the EU;

20. Deeply concerned that some Member States have denied their responsibility,
refused to welcome in their ports ships rescuing the lives of migrants and
refugees, and sometimes have gone as far as actively repelling ships, putting
lives at risk and possibly breaching international law;

21. Convinced that EU-led search and rescue operations in the Mediterranean and
in the Aegean Sea are necessary to save lives;

22. Condemning the criminalisation of NGOs operating in search and rescue
activities in the Mediterranean Sea made by several EU Member States'
governments;

24. Recognising that various pieces of EU legislation have been adopted in order
to create a common asylum policy in line with the objective set out in Article
78 TFEU, including Directive 2011/95 ("Qualification Directive") and Directive
2013/33 ("Reception Conditions Directive");

25. Welcoming the European Commission's first European Asylum and Migration
Management Strategy, presented in early 2026, which sets out a five-year
framework to support Pact implementation;

26. Welcoming the establishment of the EU Talent Pool in late 2025, the first
EU-wide platform supporting international recruitment of skills and talent from
third countries at all skill levels, and the opening of the European Legal
Gateway Office in India in early 2026 to facilitate legal migration pathways for
ICT professionals, students, and researchers;

27. Noting the European Commission's new visa and migration strategy unveiled in
early 2026, which proposes enhanced control of visa-free regimes, new
restrictive measures for non-cooperative states on readmission, and prioritised
visa procedures for "high value-added" individuals at EU level;

28. Acknowledging that Member States have committed significantly fewer
resettlement places for 2026-2027 compared to previous years, and that
relocation commitments have similarly fallen short of the European Commission's
targets, while return rates have increased in recent years.

JEF Europe, therefore,

1. Insists on the need for a common EU policy on migration, asylum, subsidiary
protection and temporary protection which fully complies with binding
obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights and respects the non-
refoulement principle;

2. Mandates the EU and its Member States to ensure the swift and effective
implementation of the Pact on Migration and Asylum, which will become applicable
in mid-2026, with a focus on operational readiness at borders, fair and
efficient procedures, and credible solidarity mechanisms;

3. Demands that the solidarity mechanism under the Pact be implemented in a way
that ensures genuine responsibility sharing between Member States, with
transparent reporting on relocations, financial contributions, and alternative
solidarity measures;

4. Requires the European Commission to closely monitor the implementation of the
Pact and to consider infringement procedures against Member States that fail to
comply with their obligations, including respect for human rights;

5. Exhorts the EU to accelerate the phasing out of the Dublin regulations and
adopt a true European asylum policy, fully respecting EU values, human rights
and Articles 78–80 TFEU, and relying on solidarity and responsibility sharing as
well as on extra assistance to the countries of entry;

6. Calls on the EU to include a European refugee status for political dissidents
in its migration and asylum policies;

7. Demands that in the future, asylum decisions and decisions on return be taken
based on unified EU-wide standards, rather than disparate standards defined at
the national level;

8. Furthermore, calls on the European Commission to consider infringement
procedures and financial sanctions against non-compliant Member States in the
framework of migration and asylum policies;

9. Urges the EU to stop using readmission agreements as the main tool to fight
irregular immigration, as this encourages violations of human rights such as the
non-refoulement principle guaranteed by the 1951 Geneva Convention;

10. Calls for an EU policy for the Mediterranean region and beyond, ensuring
broad and intensified cooperation with third countries through the Union for the
Mediterranean and other multilateral fora in order to fight human trafficking
networks, while insisting that such cooperation must include binding human
rights clauses, independent monitoring mechanisms, and oversight by the European
Parliament;

11. Demands that the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) operates
in full compliance with EU values and fundamental rights, and that the agency's
legal responsibility for pushback operations, as affirmed by the Court of
Justice of the European Union, is fully respected and enforced;

12. Insists that Frontex is tasked with search and rescue in the Mediterranean
and the Aegean Sea and demands the transformation of Operation Themis into a
wider and focused EU search and rescue operation of people in distress;

13. Mandates the establishment of a dedicated, civilian-led EU Sea Rescue
Agency, separate from Frontex, with a sole mandate to coordinate and conduct
search and rescue operations in the Mediterranean, ensuring that lifesaving is
not subordinated to border control objectives;

14. Invites the EU and its Member States to provide transit countries with
extended assistance and further humanitarian supplies to be dedicated to the
reception of asylum seekers and refugees;

15. Calls on the EU to enhance legal and humanitarian pathways to safely reach
the EU, without being forced to rely on illegal human trafficking, such as
humanitarian visas to refugees;

16. Calls for the establishment of common European asylum offices in third
countries that respect European standards of treatment and human dignity;

17. Demands with immediate effect the decriminalisation of private sea rescue by
EU states;

18. Encourages the EU to open legal channels for economic migration;

19. Requires the further expansion of legal migration pathways, including
through the EU Talent Pool, the European Legal Gateway Office model, and Talent
Partnerships with third countries, with a focus on matching skills with labour
market needs while ensuring fair recruitment practices and protection of
workers' rights;

20. Demands the EU to further facilitate cross-border mobility for cultural and
educational exchanges with third-country nationals;

21. Condemns any proposal regarding migration and asylum policy that relies on
building walls and fences, and urges the EU and its Member States to build an
open continent instead of a Fortress Europe and internal barriers;

22. Demands that the Schengen Agreements are safeguarded at all times, borders
be reopened where they have been closed and border controls are put to an end
without delay;

23. Mandates the EU to review and renegotiate externalisation agreements with
third countries, including the EU-Türkiye deal and the Memorandum of
Understanding with Tunisia, to ensure they fully respect the 1951 Geneva
Convention, include binding human rights clauses, and provide for independent
monitoring and accountability mechanisms;

24. Urges the EU to withdraw from plans to fund maritime control centres in
Libya, including the proposed centre in Benghazi, given documented human rights
abuses by Libyan authorities and militias, and to instead prioritise dedicated
EU-led search and rescue operations;

25. Demands significantly stronger political will towards the Union for the
Mediterranean (UfM), among other fora, to forge the necessary partnerships with
Southern Neighbourhood states needed to overcome the short-term vision of the EU
and its Member States to make development assistance primarily conditional on
migration cooperation to the detriment of EU values as well as the quality of
broader development goals;

26. Urges European leaders to change radically their migration and asylum
narratives to make space for more sustainable and humane approaches;

27. Commits itself to explore opportunities for cooperation and exchange with
young migrants and youth organisations working with refugees and migrants;

28. Requires the establishment of effective mechanisms to assess and match the
skills of migrants with the labour market needs of Member States, facilitating
seamless integration and contributing to the overall prosperity of the EU;

29. Mandates Member States to prioritise integration policies, including
language training, education, housing, and labour market access, as essential
components of a sustainable migration system that ensures social cohesion and
public confidence;

30. Demands the expansion of youth mobility and civic engagement programmes,
ensuring that refugees and vulnerable groups have access to student exchanges,
volunteering initiatives, and youth projects with optional financial support
from the EU.