New EU asylum rules begin, paving the way for detention centres and payments to Greece and Italy

THE EU MIGRATION and Asylum Pact, which is designed to standardise immigration laws and policy across the European Union, has officially come into effect today. 

The mammoth overhaul of the way EU countries manage immigration and asylum processing has been in the works for years, and it has come in for fierce criticism from the opposition in Ireland and human rights organisations – although in some cases for different reasons.

The European Commission and the Irish government have cast the Pact as an essential means of creating uniform rules across the bloc, while civil society organisations have condemned it and said it will perpetuate human rights violations that already characterise many member states’ border policies.

Implementing the Pact has meant changing Irish law, and the International Protection Act 2026 has come into force today.

Justice minister Jim O’Callaghan said today that the Act “marks an important milestone in ensuring the integrity and efficiency of the asylum process, and further building public confidence in the system”.

Nick Henderson, chief executive of the Irish Refugee Council, said the new Act and the EU Pact itself prioritise “expediency and fast-tracking over the rights and needs of the individual”.

He said the new law “will rush people through the protection process with little access to essential safeguards and legal advice”.

On the opposition side of the Dáil, parties on the left like the Social Democrats, People Before Profit and the Labour Party have all echoed the concerns of human rights organisations. For Sinn Féin, though, signing up to the Pact undermines Ireland’s sovereignty and ability to govern its own borders.

So what does the Pact entail?

It contains five main stated aims, which are:

• To create uniform rules around the identification of people who arrive in Europe from outside the EU to claim asylum;
• To develop a common database about new arrivals to Europe, which can paint a more accurate picture of migration trends;
• To speed up decisions on claims made by asylum seekers who enter Europe;
• To establish a ‘solidarity mechanism’ so that all countries share responsibility for asylum applications, rather than those that are at the periphery of Europe;
• To ensure that the EU is prepared for future crises, including the “weaponisation” of migration.

What does it mean for asylum seekers?

In practical terms, the Pact will mean that asylum seekers who enter Ireland via ports or airports will be housed in detention centres (referred to as reception centres) while they go through a “screening process”, which must be completed within seven days. 

The screening will include a security check, a health check, and a “preliminary vulnerability check”.

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While people in these centres are awaiting the resolution of the screening process, they will not be deemed to have entered the EU, legally speaking, even though they will be physically present within its borders.

The screening process is just one element of what asylum seekers will face at an external border.

After screening, people will be put into one of three groups: those who will go through the regular asylum application process; those who will go through an accelerated process; and those who will be sent back to their country of origin or transit.

The Citywest accommodation centre for International Protection applicants will act as one of these centres.

What is the EU’s centralised database?

Another requirement of the Pact is that countries who have signed up to it will contribute to the Eurodac system, a database that stores the fingerprints of international protection applicants or people who have crossed a border illegally. The purpose of the database is to keep track of people’s identities and movements. In addition to fingerprints, the database also keeps on file the person’s gender and assigns them a reference number. 

What is the ‘solidarity mechanism’?

The Pact’s “solidarity mechanism”, which will govern the distribution of asylum seekers across the EU’s member states, is designed to relieve countries at the geographical periphery of the EU of some of the burden they have taken on by being the first point of entry for many people seeking asylum. 

Those countries include the likes of Greece and Italy, which are common arrival points for refugees coming across the Mediterranean. 

The mechanism will mean that Ireland will have the option to take in asylum seekers from countries on the edge of the EU, or make financial contributions to support those member states instead. 

What is the ‘crisis regulation’?

One of the most controversial elements of the Pact is an emergency measure that allows states to suspend the right to seek asylum in their territory, which is ostensibly aimed at combating the “weaponisation” of migrants.

This is a reference to allegations made against the governments of Russia and Belarus that they are sending migrants to the EU’s eastern border in order to cause problems for the bloc. 

The requirements for invoking the crisis regulation, however, have been described as very loosely defined by human rights organisations. It is also one of the elements most likely to face legal challenges. 

Need more clarity and context on how migration is being discussed in Ireland? Check out our FactCheck Knowledge Bank for essential reads and guides to finding good information online.

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