By Martin Banks

MEPs and national governments have reached a long-sought agreement to revamp the EU’s asylum and migration legislation.

The EU Parliament and Council negotiators agreed on the final form of five separate EU regulations, establishing how to share the management of asylum and migration flows among member states and what to do in cases of sudden migratory crisis.

The rules also regulate how to deal with people arriving at the EU’s  external borders, the processing of asylum claims, and the identification of those arriving.

The assembly’s president Roberta Metsola, an MEP, hailed the deal and  said: “”Today is a truly historic day, as we have delivered on the Migration and Asylum Pact, possibly the most important legislative package of this mandate.

Europe will now get a robust legislative framework that is the same in all Member States.

“That functions and that protects, an approach that is humane and fair with those seeking protection, that is firm with those who are not eligible, and that is strong with those who exploit the most vulnerable,” said the president.

However left-leaning MEPs have condemned the deal on the New Pact on Migration saying it “marks the death of the individual right to asylum in the EU.”

They say the European Commission and Council’s “rush to strike the agreement reached this morning comes at the expense of the dismantling of human rights in Europe.”

A statement by the Left Group in the parliament reads, “The New Pact is a bow to right-wing extremists and fascists of Europe. The tightening of asylum laws was tailored to the demands of the Melonis and Orbans.

“The Migration Pact will not stop forced migration due to persecution, war and poverty.

“The deal, a historic moment for all the wrong reasons, will have far-reaching consequences for the rights of people on the move for decades to come. The human rights standards the EU claims as values were born out of the ashes and horrors of the Second World War, yet this agreement marks a turning point as current rights violations related to migration are legalised.”

It goes on, “The adopted legislation normalises the arbitrary detention of people on the move, including for children and families and it increases racial profiling. The Council has managed to get its way and included the concept of the so-called “instrumentalisation” of migration in the crisis regulation. This questionable concept is a blank check for the suspension of practically all rights of people seeking protection.

The Left  says it opposes claims of a “migration crisis” in the EU, adding,”We are facing an implementation “crisis” of the current EU migration and asylum law, reflected in daily violations of this legislation by member states.

Left MEP Cornelia Ernst (Die Linke, Germany) commented on the deal:

“Today is a dramatic day for the rights of people seeking protection in Europe: a right-wing populist dream-come-true. In the negotiations on the New Pact on Migration and Asylum, the European Parliament became the doormat of the member states.”

“The agreement, which is largely based on the Council mandate, is the most massive tightening of European asylum and migration law since the EU was founded. In the future, asylum seekers will be detained at the border, including families with children of all ages.”

“From there, it will then be possible to deport people directly, if possible, to so-called “safe third countries”. This means that the individual right to asylum is de facto dead.”