European Papers (Oct 2022)
The European Commission's Instrumentalization Strategy: Normalising Border Procedures and De Facto Detention
Abstract
(Series Information) European Papers - A Journal on Law and Integration, 2022 7(2), 615-626 | European Forum Insight of 3 October 2022 | (Table of Contents) I. Introduction. - II. The hotspot approach: from emergency measure to standard migration management. - III. The New Pact on Migration and Asylum: the institutionalisation of the hotspot approach. - IV. The Belarus migration crisis: instrumentalising the instrumentalisation narrative. - IV.1. Instrumentalisation of migrants. - IV.2. Instrumentalisation of migration crises. - IV.3. Instrumentalisation of derogatory regimes. - V. Conclusion. | (Abstract) The global reform of the EU migration policy envisaged in the New Pact on Migration and Asylum is stalling. The increased number of arrivals from Belarus gave the European Commission the opportunity to change its approach in attempting to reform the European migration management. The Belarus crisis, influenced by the active involvement of the Belarus regime in facilitating third country nationals' passage towards the EU external border, has been labelled an "instrumentalisation situation" posing a threat to the security of the Union. This Insight claims that the Commission is exploit-ing the instrumentalisation narrative to push forward its agenda on migration policy, normalising the use of detention and border procedures as standard migration management tools. Such policy objectives, already introduced in 2015 with the hotspot approach, already play a key role in the overall structure of the New Pact on Migration and Asylum. The Insight argues that the Commission's fight against the instrumentalisation of migrants is in itself an instrumentalisation exercise: migrants are instrumentalised to strengthen the securitarian approach to migration; migration crises are instrumentalised to push forward sectorial elements of the New Pact; EU law is instrumentalised to intro-duce derogatory regimes as permanent components of the EU migration policy.
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