The EU Pact on Migration and Asylum and the Dangerous Multiplication of ‘Anomalous Zones’ for Migration Management

In September 2020, the European Commission published what it described as a New Pact on Migration and Asylum (emphasis added) that lays down a multi-annual policy agenda on issues that have been central to debate about the future of European integration. This book critically examines the new Pact as part of a Forum organized by the Horizon 2020 project ASILE – Global Asylum Governance and the EU’s Role. ASILE studies interactions between emerging international protection systems and the United Nations Global Compact for Refugees (UN GCR), with particular focus on the European Union’s role and the UN GCR’s implementation dynamics. It brings together a new international network of scholars from 13 institutions examining the characteristics of international and country specific asylum governance instruments and arrangements applicable to people seeking international protection. It studies the compatibility of these governance instruments’ with international protection and human rights, and the UN GCR’s call for global solidarity and responsibility sharing. ASILE facilitates groundbreaking insights into the role and impacts of legal and policy responses – instruments – on refugee protection and sharing of responsibility from the perspective of their effectiveness, fairness and consistency with refugee protection and human rights. It does so through an examination and mapping of UN GCR actors – and their legal responsibilities and accountability – that have varying roles in the design and implementation of mobility and containment instruments applied to people in search of international protection across various world regions. The project studies the impacts of vulnerability and status recognition assessments – which often find expression in these same instruments and actors – on individuals’ rights and refugees’ agency. ASILE also aims at identifying lessons learned and ‘promising practices’ on refugee protection.