EU Pact on Migration and Asylum 2026: Faster Screenings and Returns

The EU’s Pact on Migration and Asylum starts applying on June 12, 2026, and it will change how Europe screens, holds, and decides asylum cases at the border. The same timeline also locks in faster “border procedures” and a new EU list of safe countries of origin, which makes rejections quicker for many applicants.

These rules matter most for people who arrive irregularly at the EU’s external borders, and for countries such as Italy and Greece that receive many first arrivals. They also affect visa-free visitors because the EU’s new digital border tools, including EES, are already reshaping how overstays and repeat entries get detected.

Timeline and member-state readiness

EU governments adopted the pact in May 2024 after years of negotiation, and the Commission has pushed member states to build new border facilities, update laws, and train staff. By January 2026, 14 member states had met a December 2025 deadline to submit implementation plans, leaving a sizeable group behind schedule.

The pact is a package of 10 legislative acts meant to create common rules across 27 member states, while still allowing limited variations. Ireland opted into seven components, and Denmark applies three. Countries have also argued over how much control they should keep over asylum and returns.

According to analysis by VisaVerge.com, the politics around the pact reflect a steady divide: many voters support managed migration, while governments keep moving toward deterrence tools at the border.

Mandatory screening: what changes at first contact

A core change is the Mandatory Screening Regulation. It requires identity, health, and security checks for people who enter irregularly, including biometric collection such as facial images and fingerprints, with data stored in Eurodac.

Screening is designed to happen quickly and then route a person into an asylum process or toward return steps. Key features:

• Biometric collection (facial images, fingerprints)
• Checks for identity, health, and security
• Data recorded in Eurodac
• Rapid routing into asylum or return procedures

National examples:

• Finland (draft law circulated in January 2026): proposed 3–7 day screenings, tighter controls for unauthorized crossers or illegal stayers, limits on reception services to initial claims, regular identity checks, and benefit cuts for non-compliance.
• Sweden: planning screening centers and coordination with police and the EU’s asylum agency to be ready for the new workflow.

Border procedures and the new “safe countries” list

The pact expands accelerated border procedures at the external border for asylum applicants from nationalities with under 20% recognition rates.

• Standard decision timeline: 12 weeks
• Possible extension: 8 weeks
• Appeals and many cases: processed within the border timeline, with many applicants kept in border facilities during processing

The EU established a list of seven safe countries of origin:
– Bangladesh, Colombia, Egypt, India, Kosovo, Morocco, Tunisia

Purpose and effect:

• Designed to speed up decisions for claims believed usually unfounded
• Creates a presumption of safety, shifting the burden onto applicants to prove personal risk
• Intended to cut backlogs and reduce smugglers’ incentives, according to EU officials
• Rights groups warn these tools can block access to asylum if safeguards fail in crowded border sites

Solidarity mechanism: relocations or payments

Under the Asylum and Migration Management Regulation, the pact creates a solidarity mechanism enabling frontline states to request assistance via relocations or financial contributions.

• Relocation capacity: up to 30,000 asylum seekers annually
• Alternative payment: €20,000 per person instead of taking relocated individuals

Political dynamics:

• The Commission warned that refusal to cooperate can trigger infringement action.
• Some capitals resist, arguing they already host large displaced populations.
• Poland has been a vocal critic, citing the Ukrainian-hosting burden and threatening non-compliance, reflecting ongoing national pushback.

Digital border controls: EES and ETIAS

The EU has already tightened border control through technology:

• Entry/Exit System (EES): went live on October 12, 2025; tracks biometric and travel data for non-EU short-stay travelers. Full rollout planned by April 10, 2026.
• Effect: makes overstays easier to flag using recorded entry/exit matches.
• ETIAS: expected in late 2026 for visa-exempt travelers from 59 countries. It will implement pre-travel screening for a flow described by officials as 1.4 billion potential visitors.

Together, EES and ETIAS move enforcement from occasional passport stamps to systematic tracking and automated risk checks.

For the EU’s official explainer of the pact’s laws and timeline, see the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs overview of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs overview of the Pact on Migration and Asylum legislative package.

Legal challenges and rights warnings

Human Rights Watch and the Danish Refugee Council criticized the pact for expanding detention-like border settings and creating broad “emergency” triggers. They warn that vague concepts such as “mass influx” or “instrumentalization” risk becoming shortcuts around normal asylum access.

Notable legal and judicial developments:

• A late 2025 CJEU decision sent back a Frontex-related expulsion case involving Syrian refugee Alaa Hamoudi, maintaining pressure on accountability for pushbacks.
• In May 2025, a group of nine states petitioned to reinterpret human-rights law around expulsions, setting up more legal conflict in 2026.

Migration analyst Gerald Knaus notes mitigating limits in the pact:

• A border-procedure cap of 120,000 cases annually
• Continued access to counsel
• Legal standards requiring verifiable links when officials claim a person can be sent elsewhere

Important: Critics warn that vaguely defined emergency clauses and detention-like procedures could undercut asylum access in practice, especially in overcrowded border facilities.

National policy directions and examples

Although the pact sets EU minimums, national policies shape outcomes on the ground. Selected country practices:

• Italy
• Tested “offshoring” processing through Albania, transfers started in October 2024; courts later shifted one site toward repatriation use amid detention problems.
• Issued 181,000 work permits under a 2025 flows decree (tied to 2023–2025), with digital applications and employer pre-approvals.
• The EU Blue Card route remains outside quotas for skilled workers.
• Greece
• Paused some North African asylum claims in July 2025, aligning with a push toward screening and faster border decisions.
• Spain
• Debated regularizing 300,000 undocumented people per year for three years to meet labor needs while also facing pressure over arrivals and relocations tied to the Canary Islands.
• Poland
• Announced a 2025–2030 approach focused on “security, control, selectivity”, including stricter student visa rules, tougher integration expectations, and expanded digital processing.

These national choices matter because capacity, political will, and how countries use detention space, legal aid, and appeal access will shape the lived experience under the pact.

Practical effects for asylum seekers and travelers

For asylum seekers arriving at external borders, the pact’s daily impact will include:

• Faster first contact: screening in days, with biometrics added to Eurodac
• More border decisions: an increase in cases routed into 12-week border procedures, especially for nationals with low recognition rates and those from safe countries of origin
• Tighter reception rules: national measures (e.g., Finland’s proposals) that may reduce services, restrict movement, and cut benefits for non-compliance

For workers, students, and visa-free visitors:

• EES: makes short-stay overstays easier to detect and enforce at subsequent entries
• ETIAS: will require pre-travel authorization for many visa-free nationals
• National labor channels (e.g., Italy’s quotas, Spain’s regularization debates) will run alongside stricter border controls, producing a two-track system that both recruits and restricts

Key facts at a glance