EU in the face of migrant crisis: Reasons for ineffective human rights protection

Abstract

Despite the fact that EU was acknowledged to ensure human rights protection level equivalent to the one ensured under European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), it is doubtful if the EU was able to ensure human rights in time of recent migrant crisis. It is argued in the Article that, absence of comprehensive EU-level migrant policy restricted EU's ability to prevent the crisis and to mitigate its consequences as well as human rights violations. In addition, being oriented to ex post rights defense, EU's system was also practically unsuitable to defend the rights of the asylum seekers after the violations actually occurred. It is proposed that EU should address migration issues immediately by introducing major migration policy reform.