Asylum

Asylum, migration and borders

The increase in migration has presented opportunities and challenges across Europe. FRA encourages rights-compliant responses.

We provide practical expertise on this complex issue. This includes regular updates, focus papers and toolkits. We also outline policy alternatives and best practices.

Highlights

  • Handbook / Guide / Manual
    8
    October
    2025
    The Entry/Exit System (EES), launching in 2025, will register non-EU nationals crossing the EU’s external borders. This FRA guidance helps border guards apply the new rules in line with EU fundamental rights. It offers practical tips on informing people, collecting biometric data and supporting people with specific needs. Based on fieldwork at 10 border crossing points in 6 Member States, the guidance will ensure rights are respected under the new system. A separate guidance publication for managers accompanies this publication.
  • Opinion / Position Paper
    23
    July
    2025
    This position paper examines how the EU can counter the instrumentalisation of migrants while also upholding fundamental rights. Instrumentalisation refers to countries outside the EU using migration to exert political pressure. This position paper defines the phenomenon, provides examples, and outlines legal obligations under EU law. It provides legal analysis and warns that some responses risk undermining fundamental rights at the EU’s external borders, including the right to asylum. To counter instrumentalisation and uphold fundamental rights, the position paper proposes practical measures for Member States to take, such as sanctions, border controls, and cooperation with private operators.
  • Periodic updates / Series
    20
    June
    2025
    The EU Agency for Fundamental Rights regularly collects data on the operations of NGO vessels involved in search and rescue in the Mediterranean. This includes any legal proceedings against them, as well as any difficulties in disembarking migrants in safe ports. This paper provides an overview of criminal investigations and other legal proceedings initiated by European Union (EU) Member States against civil society organisations deploying search and rescue vessels and aircraft in the Mediterranean and/or against individual crew members. The latest update covers the period from 2018 up until 1 June 2025.
  • Page
    This page describes the activities of the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) on migration and asylum. It also explains how these activities can help the European Union (EU) and its Member States to implement the Pact on Migration and Asylum in a fundamental rights-compliant manner.
    Publications and data
    Greece needs solid, sustained support and solidarity as it faces great migration challenges, says FRA Director Michael O’Flaherty after 2 days of meetings in Athens with authorities.
    17
    March
    2020
    The EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) urges Member States to agree on a simple and practical workflow as soon as possible, to avoid lack of clarity and delays in the relocation process. This paper provides practical suggestions on relocation of unaccompanied children from Greece, building on lessons learned from previous mandatory and voluntary relocation schemes. The paper provides FRA input on the initiative of the European Commission and a group of Member States to relocate unaccompanied children.
    February
    2020
    In today’s media landscape the way in which journalists and editors receive, process and publish news is constantly changing. Journalists face immense time pressure, as news frequently breaks online To facilitate training on the coverage of migration news, this Trainer’s Manual is a tool to be used together with the e-Media Toolkit.
    18
    February
    2020
    The EU Agency for Fundamental Rights has been regularly collecting data on migration since September 2015. This report focuses on the fundamental rights situation of people arriving in Member States and EU candidate countries particularly affected by large migration movements. It addresses key fundamental rights concerns between 1 October and 31 December 2019.
    16
    January
    2020
    All language versions now available
    16 December 2021
    This leaflet assists officers and authorities to inform asylum applicants and migrants in an understandable and accessible way about the processing of their fingerprints in Eurodac.
    19
    November
    2019
    Over 2.5 million people applied for international protection in the 28 EU Member States in 2015 and 2016. Many of those who were granted some form of protection are young people, who are likely to stay and settle in the EU. The EU Agency for Fundamental Rights interviewed some of them, as well as professionals working with them in 15 locations across six EU Member States: Austria, France, Germany, Greece, Italy and Sweden. This report presents the result of FRA’s fieldwork research, focusing on young people between the
    ages of 16 and 24.
    Handbook / Guide / Manual
    18
    February
    2013
    Based on its findings and research FRA provides practical guidance to support the implementation of fundamental rights in the EU Member States. This series contains practical guidance on: Initial-reception facilities at external borders; Apprehension of migrants in an irregular situation; Guidance on how to reduce the risk of refoulement in external border management when working in or together with third countries; Fundamental rights implications of the obligation to provide fingerprints for Eurodac; Twelve operational fundamental rights considerations for law enforcement when processing Passenger Name Record (PNR) data and Border controls and fundamental rights at external land borders.
    20
    November
    2019
    French and German versions now available
    21 April 2020
    Child rights come first. Measures to ensure child protection and participation apply to all children in the EU. This brochure guides you to relevant FRA reports and tools that can support you when promoting and protecting the rights of all children in the EU.
    4
    November
    2019
    The EU Agency for Fundamental Rights has been regularly collecting data on asylum and
    migration since September 2015. This report focuses on the fundamental rights situation
    of people arriving in Member States and EU candidate countries particularly affected by
    migration. It addresses fundamental rights concerns between 1 July and 30 September 2019.
    In this edition Michael O'Flaherty reports back from his visit to the asylum seeker facility in Lesbos and calls for the support of all EU Member States to improve in particular the situation of unaccompanied children.
    18
    September
    2019
    Individuals who are not entitled to stay in the European Union are typically subject to being returned to their home countries. This includes children who are not accompanied by their parents or by another primary caregiver. But returning such children, or finding another durable solution, is a delicate matter, and doing so in full compliance with fundamental rights protections can be difficult. This focus paper therefore aims to help national authorities involved in return-related tasks, including child-protection services, to ensure full rights compliance.
    12
    September
    2019
    FRA’s second EU Minorities and Discrimination survey (EU-MIDIS II) collected information from over 25,000 respondents with different ethnic minority and immigrant backgrounds across all 28 EU Member States. The main findings from the survey, published in 2017, pointed to a number of differences in the way women and men with immigrant backgrounds across the European Union (EU) experience how their rights are respected. This report summarises some of the most relevant survey findings in this regard, which show the need for targeted, gender-sensitive measures that promote the integration of – specifically – women who are immigrants or descendants of immigrants.
    Periodic updates / Series
    29
    July
    2019
    The EU Agency for Fundamental Rights has been regularly collecting data on migration since September 2015. This report focuses on the fundamental rights situation of people arriving in Member States and EU candidate countries particularly affected by migration movements. It addresses fundamental rights concerns between 1 April and 30 June 2019.
    In the latest edition of his video blog, FRA Director Michael O'Flaherty focuses on the migration situation in the Mediterranean Sea and makes three proposals.
    27
    June
    2019
    The EU Return Directive (2008/115/EC) in Article 8 (6) introduced an important fundamental rights safeguard for third-country nationals ordered to leave the EU because they do not or no longer fulfil the conditions for entry and/or stay. According to the directive, Member States must provide for an effective forced-return monitoring system.
    25
    June
    2019
    This report is the EU Fundamental Rights Agency’s fourth on the topic of severe labour exploitation. Based on interviews with 237 exploited workers, it paints a bleak picture of severe exploitation and abuse. The workers include both people who came to the EU, and EU nationals who moved to another EU country. They were active in diverse sectors, and their legal status also varied.
    Fundamental Rights Report 2019: Not all children benefit equally from efforts to guarantee child rights.
    Some groups face particular difficulties.
    Fundamental Rights Report 2019: Although migrant arrivals to the EU continue to drop, it remains a divisive issue politically and
    across society. Nearly 4 in 10 Europeans think immigration is more of a problem than a solution.
    And nearly a half overestimate the number of irregular migrants in their country.
    Migrant workers in the EU often face labour exploitation and abuse. New guidance from the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) outlines six ways labour inspectors can better safeguard migrant workers’ rights and help them seek justice. This autumn, the Agency will issue a practical manual with tips, examples and exercises to further support labour inspectors.
    Between 18 and 20 June, FRA contributed to training on the Entry Exit System (EES). The system will register biometric data of non-EU nationals travelling to the EU as of October 2024.
    Failure to rescue and assist migrants in distress, maltreatment, and abuse. These are some of the serious and life-threatening human rights violations at the EU’s land and sea borders that are not properly investigated. The latest report from the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) identifies systemic gaps and obstacles to investigating such violations. The Pact on Migration and Asylum constitutes an opportunity to address these. The report suggests concrete steps to ensure more effective investigations into incidents of loss of life and ill-treatment at the EU’s borders.
    FRA delivered a lecture on new forms of fundamental rights monitoring under the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum during a Summer School on EU Immigration and Asylum Law and Policy. The Odysseus Academic Network for Legal Studies on Immigration and Asylum in Europe convened the summer school.
    FRA spoke to the Coordinated Supervision Committee about the fundamental rights implications of the EU’s Entry-Exit System.
    Nearly 30,000 people have lost their lives crossing the Mediterranean Sea to seek sanctuary or a better life in Europe since 2014. The EU Agency for Fundamental Rights continues to outline the struggles civil society organisations face rescuing people in distress in the Mediterranean.
    FRA took part in a workshop in Vilnius 18 and 19 June on enhancing Lithuania’s guardianship model. The European Asylum Agency organised the event.
    FRA presented its updated draft guidance during the Council Frontiers Working Party on setting up national independent mechanisms to monitor fundamental rights compliance at EU borders. The meeting took place in Brussels on 6 June.
    FRA and the Frontex Consultative Forum on Fundamental Rights attended the Frontex Management Board meeting on 13 June. They commented on the protection of fundamental rights in Frontex operations.
    FRA joined working meetings on establishing the European Travel Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS). FRA is a member of the ETIAS Fundamental Rights Guidance Board, set up under the Regulation.
    FRA delivered training on EU return laws and related case law of the EU’s Court of Justice at a training event for administrative judges in Budapest. The training took place on 30 May at the Hungarian Judicial Academy.
    People’s fundamental rights are at risk across Europe. This is due to rising levels of poverty, persistent threats against democracy, widespread racism and challenges occurring in the context of migration, finds FRA’s Fundamental Rights Report 2024. These threats underline the need to ensure a strong and sustainable fundamental rights protection across the EU, particularly for people in vulnerable situations. The report suggests how policymakers and civil society can work in tandem to counter the threat of social exclusion and enable a more equal and fairer society for all.
    FRA took part in a meeting of the European Trade Union Confederation’s Migration and Inclusion Committee in Brussels on 16 May.
    Members of the Frontex Consultative Forum on Fundamental Rights met with the Frontex Management Board chairperson and the Frontex senior management.
    FRA trained staff of the Hungarian National Directorate-General for Aliens Policing and representatives of the National Police Headquarters dealing with return/readmission in Budapest on 15 April.
    FRA contributed to the training of Schengen evaluators on 22-26 April in Budapest on returns and the management of external borders
    FRA attended the European Guardianship Network meeting in Rome from 16 to 17 April. FRA presented developments on guardianship for unaccompanied children in the Asylum and Migration Pact.
    To better support unaccompanied children seeking protection, the European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA) and the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) have released their latest Practical Tool for Guardians. The tool will support guardians in assisting unaccompanied children with their asylum applications when there are different countries involved, such as in family reunification or relocation procedures.
    FRA contributed to a roundtable discussion on migrant women in Brussels on 10 April. The COST ‘Women on the Move’ Programme organised the event. It focused on women's migration across Europe.
    Mid-level officers of the Bulgarian border police took part in three consecutive workshops on fundamental rights. FRA, together with Frontex Fundamental Rights Office (FRO) and the Bulgarian Office of the UN’s Refugee Agency ran the workshops.