Implementing the UN Global Compacts for Refugees and Migrants in Times of Pandemic: A View from the EUMS

Summary

ABSTRACT

This contribution explores the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on refugees’ and migrants’ access to human rights protection in the European Union (EU, the Union), in light of its Member States’ commitments in the UN Global Compacts on Refugees and Migrants (Compacts). It holds that those in precarious and vulnerable positions vis-à-vis the state were among the first to experience a loss of access to rights in the face of the pandemic. Through analysis of the commitments made in the Global Compacts and their relationship to existing legal frameworks, as expressed in the Common European Asylum System (CEAS) and European Human Rights treaties, we assess implementation and policy in response to COVID-19. We contend that both the CEAS and the Compacts balance the human rights protections of refugees and migrants against the observance of state sovereign control over borders. A focus on three areas of contention in EU law and policy – access to migration procedures , use of immigration detention and access to health care – demonstrates that there was a fragmented response to the pandemic based upon differing accounts of this balance. The contribution concludes that, in line with the Global Compacts’ call for respect for the human rights of refugees and migrants, states are obliged by their Global Compact commitments to extend basic health care and social service provisions to all migrants and refugees as well as to release those detained under immigration powers. This would go a long way to preserve their basic rights in the face of COVID-19 and ensure EU policy is in line with the commitments made within the Global Compacts.

INTRODUCTION

There has been much discussion of rights restrictions in response to the COVID-19 pandemic – movement, education, health care – and the list goes on. This contribution highlights the effect of COVID-19 measures on those whose access to rights is precarious. During the pandemic, some European Union Member States (EUMSs) differentiated among groups of persons based on their immigration status to limit their obligations towards certain ‘categories’ of individuals found on their territory. This rights limitation is in stark contrast to the commitments EUMSs (and the European Union (EU, the Union)) made by voting for two Compacts that are founded on existing refugee and human rights obligations.