MEPs have adopted a profound reform of European migration policy. It tightens controls on arrivals at the bloc's borders and sets up a system of solidarity between member states.
The ten texts of this “Pact on Migration and Asylum” have all been approved. The text will now have to be formally validated by the Council, probably at the end of the month. It will apply in 2026 and its implementation arrangements must still be finalized. The reform also provides for “mandatory security, vulnerability and health checks” for anyone entering the EU irregularly. Some 161 human rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the International Rescue Committee, had called on MEPs to reject the Pact, worrying about “detentions of families with children” and “criminalization” exiles. The new text provides more broadly for the extension of the possible duration of detention of a migrant at the external borders of the EU: up to nine months in total.