Migration deals and responsibility sharing: can the two go together?

Abstract

This paper investigates how the EU’s externalisation of migration policy relates to the efforts at the global level to strengthen solidarity in the protection of refugees. Where the New York Declaration of 2016 stressed the need for a more equitable sharing of the responsibility for hosting and supporting refugees, the chapter questions whether the EU policies develop into this direction. The overview of the impact of migration deals with third countries, focusses on the human rights risks for migrants stuck in a transit countries or returned there. The chapter describes how these risks will increase with the watering down of the safe third country concepts in EU legislation. Based on the consequences of the EU-Turkey deal, the author argues that extending similar deals with African countries, would not only threat the protection standards of refugees, but also affect the responsibility taken for refugees by transit countries. Those countries tend to adopt the externalisation policy of the EU, including a restricted visa policy, readmission agreements and avoiding and allocating responsibility for refugees with as an ultimate consequence that refugees face obstacles in fleeing their country. This copying behaviour has also serious implications for African regional relations and mobility schemes, which can be seen as an unintended side-effect of EU’s policies. The author therefore argues that while the EU externalisation policy neglects the longterm and global effects, it risks to affect the aim of the draft UN Global Compact on the refugees to strengthen solidarity on the global level