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Refugees in Lampedusa: The EU wants to conduct as many asylum procedures as possible at its external borders. Most member states are not yet ready for this.
KEYSTONE
Today, the biggest reform of the European asylum system in years comes into effect. Asylum seekers are to be registered and detained at the external borders. Switzerland is participating. Refugee organizations are criticizing the tightening of rules.
On June 12, 2026, the EU Migration and Asylum Pact will enter into force. What sounds like a dry legislative change entails a far-reaching tightening of the EU border regime. That is, provided the member states are actually able to implement the rules and procedures. This will also require reforms and new infrastructure in individual countries.
The EU wants to regain better control over migration. Specifically, this means that fewer people who do not meet the conditions for asylum—because they are not being persecuted in their home countries—should enter the EU.
The Migration and Asylum Pact introduces a series of regulations to manage migration and create a common asylum system at the EU level, the EU states on its website, “balancing the needs of member states with the protection of those in need of protection.”
The background is that the Schengen-Dublin system, which aims to receive refugees and distribute them as fairly as possible among member states, has functioned increasingly poorly in recent years. Countries on the EU’s external borders felt let down by the other member states. Some of them, particularly in Eastern Europe, refused to cooperate.
The Migration Pact now aims to ensure that all asylum seekers are once again registered and detained at the EU’s external borders. The countries on the periphery of Europe will be compensated financially or with personnel by the other members of the Schengen Area. Or the other states will take in asylum seekers.
On this day, the rules of the Common European Asylum System (CEAS) will come into effect. This system provides for centers at the external borders of the Schengen Area to receive asylum seekers.
Those who have little chance of being granted asylum due to their country of origin are to go through the procedure there within the first 12 weeks of arrival and be deported no later than 12 weeks after that. People coming from countries where no more than 20 percent of applicants have been granted asylum in the Schengen Area will be processed through an expedited procedure at the external border.
The CEAS includes enhanced monitoring of people who are already in the Schengen Area without a permanent residence permit. In addition to unequivocally establishing identity through photos and fingerprints, the screening process also includes a health and security check.
The data is then made available to all member states in a shared database. Data on temporarily admitted persons already living in a Schengen state is also entered into the EU database called Eurodac.
Switzerland is adopting the stricter screening rules and, like EU member states, will make its data available in the Eurodac database. It has committed to screening not only new arrivals but also individuals who have already entered the country without a residence permit in accordance with the new rules—even if they do not intend to apply for asylum.
Switzerland is also adopting the revised Dublin rules, which determine which country is responsible for a person’s asylum procedure. This should make it easier for Switzerland to return asylum seekers to the country where they first entered the Schengen area.
In recent years, some countries on the EU’s external border have allowed arriving asylum seekers to transit without registration. This made it easier for some of them to reach Switzerland.
The State Secretariat for Migration states in a press release: “However, new criteria are also being introduced that better take into account the asylum seeker’s individual connection to a specific Dublin state.”
This means that, under certain circumstances, asylum seekers may be allowed to travel on to a country where relatives or acquaintances already live. In general, however, the Migration Pact aims to prevent this secondary migration—the movement of asylum seekers from one Schengen country to another.
Switzerland also recognizes a crisis regulation: This allows states to take more time to respond to requests from other states in crisis situations than the regular deadlines permit.
The Swiss border is an EU external border. Nevertheless, Switzerland does not implement the border procedures of the Migration Pact there. That would make little sense, since the vast majority of asylum seekers in Europe do not enter the EU from Switzerland.
As a non-EU member, Switzerland is also not bound by the solidarity mechanism. However, it can participate voluntarily, as the SEM notes.
Switzerland must also submit certain legislative changes to Parliament. These are subject to an optional referendum, so they could be put to a vote.
The EU’s goal is to allow fewer people with little chance of asylum to enter the Schengen Area. If they can be stopped at the external borders, fewer will reach Switzerland.
However, the Migration Pact also promises to allow asylum seekers to travel to the country with which they have a connection. For example, Eritreans or Afghans can still join relatives who are already living in Switzerland.
Apparently not. The EU itself views the entry into force of the new rules on June 12 as the start of implementation. To implement the procedures, member states must amend national laws, build or expand infrastructure, and provide trained staff.
German MEP Birgit Sippel, for instance, criticizes: “After member states had two years to implement and apply these legal provisions, we must conclude that almost none of them are 100 percent ready.”
“Eurobserver” reports that only eleven countries have implemented data sharing via Eurodac. In many places, centers at the external borders in particular are unable to accommodate arrivals and carry out the accelerated procedures within 12 weeks.
This suggests that the EU will not be able to reduce the number of asylum seekers in the Schengen Area. However, this number is currently not as high as it was at the height of the migration crisis, which led to the adoption of the Migration Pact. The number of arrivals, however, continues to be determined by external factors—the crises in the countries of origin and the opportunities to reach the EU border.
Refugee organizations criticize the tightening of EU asylum procedures. They describe the centers at the borders as detention camps. In fact, people are not allowed to leave these centers, so they are effectively locked up.
Critics are also convinced that the fast-track procedures do not comply with the right to a proper asylum process. Swiss Refugee Aid criticizes that EU asylum policy is geared toward deterring and repelling arrivals rather than protecting people from persecution.
A coalition called Bewegungsfreiheit is calling for a rally in Bern on June 12, the day the Migration Pact takes effect.
