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The European Union has recently endorsed significant reforms to its asylum system amid campaigning for June’s European Parliament elections in which immigration is expected to be a hot-button issue. The New Pact on Migration and Asylum includes a centralized database for tracking migrants, procedures for screening individuals to determine their asylum eligibility, deporting those who do not qualify, and, controversially, letting nations detain migrants at borders and fingerprint children.
Despite opposition from Hungary and Poland — who falsely claimed the measure would force them to accept migrants against their will — the majority of EU members supported the reforms, most of which will take effect in 2026. Mainstream political parties on the left and right hope these changes will help them win some votes back from far-right parties, which are expected to pick up seats in June’s elections.
Critics, however, argue that the pact focuses too heavily on deterrence, potentially compromising migrants’ rights to seek asylum.
This overhaul marks the first major update to Europe's asylum laws in approximately two decades, aiming to replace a system that collapsed in 2015 when over a million migrants, mostly fleeing conflicts in Syria and Iraq, entered Europe.