11 September 2020

Dear John xxxxxx,

As the final embers are snuffed out at the largely destroyed Moria refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos, authorities face the major task of devising a sustainable plan for the thousands of camp dwellers who have been displaced by the fires. The job has been made all the more complex by the recent arrival of COVID-19 among some of the camp’s residents.

Yet while the near-term challenges are significant, a far bigger test awaits. The European Union later this month is due to unveil its long-anticipated EU Pact on Migration and Asylum, and the Moria tragedy now casts its shadow over that launch.

In a new commentary, MPI Europe Director Hanne Beirens explores the pact’s arrival as Moria has ripped away the fig leaf that allowed policymakers to avert their eyes from the fact that an EU-unworthy solution to the reception of newcomers has persisted for years now.

She traces some of the key gaps the pact must address if it, and the European Union and 27 Member States deeply divided over asylum, are to create an efficient, rights-respecting and EU law-abiding mechanism to address the claims of those arriving at Europe’s door seeking protection.

“The pact’s launch is imminent, and the crash test for its ambitions has come early,” Beirens writes. “If Moria persists as a concept—with asylum seekers prevented from onward movement elsewhere in Europe—this becomes an integral pillar of future EU asylum practice, whatever is written on paper.”

I commend this timely, thought-provoking commentary to your attention. You can read it here: www.migrationpolicy.org/news/greece-moria-tragedy-crash-test-eu-pact-migration-and-asylum.

Best regards,

MPI Europe provides authoritative research and practical policy design to governmental and nongovernmental stakeholders who seek more effective management of immigration, immigrant integration, and asylum systems, as well as better outcomes for newcomers, families of immigrant background, and receiving communities throughout Europe. MPI Europe also provides a forum for the exchange of information on migration and immigrant integration practices within the European Union and Europe more generally. For more, visit www.mpieurope.org.