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
    6
    June
    2019
    How much progress can we expect in a decade? Various rights-related instruments had been in place for 10 years in 2018, prompting both sobering and encouraging reflection on this question.
    6
    June
    2019
    The year 2018 brought both progress and setbacks in terms of fundamental rights protection. FRA’s Fundamental Rights Report 2019 reviews major developments in the field, identifying both achievements and remaining areas of concern. This publication presents FRA’s opinions on the main developments in the thematic areas covered, and a synopsis of the evidence supporting these
    opinions.
    Periodic updates / Series
    16
    May
    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 January and 31 March 2019.
    27
    March
    2019
    This report looks into the fundamental rights situation of asylum applicants and beneficiaries of international protection in the EU throughout 2018. It pulls together the main issues identified in FRA’s regular updates on fundamental rights related to asylum, migration and borders in selected EU Member States, which the agency has been publishing since September 2015.
    11
    March
    2019
    In November 2016, FRA formulated 21 individual opinions to address the fundamental rights shortcomings identified in the implementation of the hotspot approach in Greece and Italy. Despite genuine efforts to improve the situation since November 2016, many of the suggestions contained in the 21 opinions FRA formulated at the time remain valid.
    Periodic updates / Series
    18
    February
    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 large migration movements.
    Opinion / Position Paper
    17
    January
    2019
    This Opinion by FRA aims to inform the European Parliament’s position on the legislative proposal for a recast Directive on common standards and procedures in Member States for returning illegally staying third country nationals (Return Directive), presented by the European Commission on 12 September 2018.
    Opinion / Position Paper
    6
    December
    2018
    This Opinion by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) aims to inform
    the European Parliament’s position on the legislative proposal on the European Border and
    Coast Guard (EBCG) presented by the European Commission on 12 September 2018.
    5
    December
    2018
    Last versions available are EL and NL
    11 March 2021
    This guide explains what profiling is, the legal frameworks that regulate it, and why conducting profiling lawfully is both necessary to comply with fundamental rights and crucial for effective policing and border management. The guide also provides practical guidance on how to avoid unlawful profiling in police and border management operations.
    Black people in the EU face unacceptable difficulties in getting a decent job because of their skin colour. Racist harassment also remains all too common.
    Periodic updates / Series
    26
    November
    2018
    The EU Agency for Fundamental Rights has been collecting relevant data since September 2015, in light of the increasing numbers of refugees, asylum seekers and migrants entering the EU. This report focuses on the fundamental rights situation of people arriving in Member States particularly affected by large migration movements. The countries covered are: Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain and Sweden.
    26
    October
    2018
    The EU Agency for Fundamental Rights’ 2018 Fundamental Rights Forum
    brought together more than 700 human rights champions at a time of
    widening social divisions and increasingly polarised politics across
    Europe.
    1
    October
    2018
    This note draws attention to the recent trend of criminalising search and rescue operations (SAR) in the Mediterranean Sea carried out by non-governmental organisations (NGOs) or other private entities. This includes seizing rescue vessels, as well as arrests for crew members, in some EU Member States. Most of such incidents concerned NGOs operating in the Central Mediterranean Sea.
    Periodic updates / Series
    21
    September
    2018
    The EU Agency for Fundamental Rights has been collecting relevant data since September 2015, in light of the increasing numbers of refugees, asylum seekers and migrants entering the EU. This report focuses on the fundamental rights situation of people arriving in Member States particularly affected by large migration movements. The countries covered are: Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain and Sweden.
    14
    September
    2018
    This Opinion by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) aims to inform the European Parliament’s position concerning the legislative proposal for a Regulation on strengthening the security of identity cards of European Union (EU) citizens and of residence documents issued to EU citizens and their family members exercising their right of free movement. It focuses on the processing of biometric data and complements the opinion published by the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS).
    10
    September
    2018
    This Opinion aims to
    inform the European Parliament’s position on the legislative proposal amending the
    Visa Information System, the Visa Code and other related provisions of EU law. The
    European Commission presented the proposal on 16 May 2018 and EU legislators are
    currently discussing it.
    5
    September
    2018
    Severe labour exploitation is widespread across the European Union. While workplace inspections can help counter this phenomenon, they need to be strengthened to do so effectively. Based on interviews and focus group discussions with almost 240 exploited workers active in diverse economic sectors, this report provides important evidence on how unscrupulous employers manipulate and undermine inspections, and on what can be done to counteract such efforts.
    6
    September
    2018
    Workers are being severely exploited for their labour across the EU, and
    inspections are not effective at stopping this reality. Based on interviews with
    almost 240 workers – including non-EU citizens who came to the EU and
    EU nationals who moved to another EU country to work – a new FRA report
    outlines the problem and identifies ways to bolster inspections.
    Periodic updates / Series
    23
    July
    2018
    The EU Agency for Fundamental Rights has been collecting relevant data since September 2015, in light of the increasing numbers of refugees, asylum seekers and migrants entering the EU. This report focuses on the fundamental rights situation of people arriving in Member States particularly affected by large migration movements. The countries covered are: Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain and Sweden.
    On 23 January, FRA and the Frontex Consultative Forum on Fundamental Rights attended the Frontex Management Board meeting. They addressed the protection of fundamental rights in Frontex operations.
    The Council of Europe’s Special Representative on migration and refugees hosted a visit from FRA and the European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA).
    On 11 January, FRA held the inception meeting for a new project on the Entry/Exit System (EES) with partners from its research network, FRANET.
    On 18 December 2023, FRA presented its report on human rights defenders to the Visa Committee which brings together all EU Member States.
    A new joint publication from the Council of Europe and the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) outlines the relevant human rights standards at Europe’s borders that apply to children.
    On 6-8 December 2023, the Greek Ministry of Migration and Asylum in collaboration with the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) and the EU Asylum Agency (EUAA) provided a training of trainers on guardianship for unaccompanied children.
    On 8 December, FRA contributed to discussion on human rights compliant asylum procedures in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) Committee on Migration, Refugees and Displaced Persons. FRA reported about obstacles in accessing asylum procedures at EU’s external borders as described in its report Asylum and migration:
    Longer-term plans, better information and administrative flexibility would support local authorities providing people who fled the war in Ukraine improved access to housing, education, jobs and healthcare in the EU, finds an EU Agency of Fundamental Rights (FRA) report. It examines how authorities responded to the first-ever activation of the EU’s Temporary Protection Directive. It identifies good practices and suggests how authorities can tackle the many shared challenges they face.
    FRA took part in the first meeting of the Council of Europe consultation group focusing on children from Ukraine. The meeting focused on applicable law, guardianship, reception and mental health programmes.
    On 5 December, FRA presented key developments in terms of fundamental rights for asylum seekers and migrants during the plenary meeting of the EU Migration Preparedness and Crisis Blueprint.
    FRA contributed to a Spanish Presidency European Migration Network event on ‘Shaping the future of EU legal migration’. Participants discussed tools and challenges of labour migration policies as well as complementary pathways linked to work for people in need of international protection.
    On 22 November, FRA gave a presentation online on guardianship for unaccompanied children. The presentation was part of a seminar organised by the European Committee of the Regions and UNICEF to celebrate World Children’s Day.
    Every year, the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) updates its overview of national forced return monitoring systems across the EU. The overview for 2022 is now available.
    On 14 November, the Advisory Board of the Independent Monitoring Mechanism of Croatia met in Zagreb. They discussed progress in implementing the activities agreed for 2023.
    On 16 November, FRA took part in a seminar on information provision during the Justice and Home Affairs Agencies network meeting. The seminar covered information provision in different migratory contexts.
    On 9 November, FRA gave a presentation on its upcoming ‘Manual for labour inspectors on the protective elements of EU law for third-country workers’.
    FRA presented its project on remote biometric identification in law enforcement and the fundamental rights implications at the annual congress of the Biometrics Institute.
    FRA gave a presentation on enhancing the role of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights in asylum matters during the Academy of European Law’s (ERA) annual conference on European asylum and migration law.
    FRA took part in two Frontex working group meetings for Member States on screening rules for ETIAS, the European Travel Information and Authorisation System. FRA is a member of the ETIAS Fundamental Rights Guidance Board.
    The Frontex Consultative Forum meeting took place on 18 October in Warsaw.