The construction of walls and border protection by the European Union in the face of the refugee crisis

Abstract

In recent times there have been numerous arrivals to the European Union in search of refuge, especially in 2015 when an unprecedented humanitarian crisis began and applications for international protection in the EU exceeded one million. Faced with the massive arrival of applicants for protection in the EU, there is a commitment to the creation of regulatory instruments aimed at controlling and blocking borders. An example of this ineffective protection of the rights of refugees was the creation of the Turkey-EU Agreement of 2016, now repealed, which was to act as a buffer state preventing them from reaching EU territory.

Despite existing refugee law and the recent New Deal on Migration and Asylum of 23 September 2020, certain social and political trends repeatedly forget the international obligation to guarantee refugee rights. For this reason, an in-depth analysis is needed of the application of restrictive policies that are committed to border shielding focused on control and security and that violate the principles of the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees.