Joint Policy Paper: The EU Screening Regulation
Joint publication by Border Violence Monitoring Network, Mobile Info Team, I Have Rights, ASGI, and Centre for Legal Aid - Voices in Bulgaria
29th November 2023
The European Commission’s Proposal for the Screening Regulation in the New Pact on Migration and Asylum introduces a screening procedure for Third Country Nationals (TCNs) arriving at external European borders in what the Commission announced as a “more efficient, seamless and harmonised migration management system”. The Regulation lays out a system whereby individuals are not considered to have entered the territory of the EU using the legal fiction of ‘non-entry’, are de facto detained in closed centres where they undergo screening procedures which, in turn, decide if they will be referred to an accelerated border procedure or a full assessment of their claim under normal procedures.
Jointly with the Border Violence Monitoring Network, I Have Rights, The Association for Juridical Studies on Migration (ASGI) and Centre for Legal Aid – Voices in Bulgaria, Mobile Info Team contributed to this report that shows why the Screening Regulation will only serve to lock in extant rights violations. This paper looks to case examples from Greece, Croatia, Italy and Bulgaria – external EU Member States – to evidence why certain safeguards are necessary, and legal loopholes must be closed. As political deals speed towards closure next week, we stand together and urge co-legislators to uphold the fundamental rights of people on the move at entry points to the EU.
