Migration and Fundamental Rights Bulletin - 2/2026
Following regular reporting on fundamental rights issues related to migration and asylum from 2015 to 2023, FRA resumed the series in 2026 under the EU's 2024 Asylum and Migration Management Regulation, ahead of the June 2026 implementation of the EU Migration and Asylum Pact. The first bulletin, published in April 2026, covered developments from 1 January 2025 to 31 March 2026.
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Maintaining the security of Schengen external borders requires continuous vigilance against evolving geopolitical risks, while ensuring that fundamental rights are respected, as stated in the 2026 State of Schengen Report. Credible reports point to ongoing fundamental rights violations at borders, including allegations of summary returns, violence, and restricted access to asylum. Some courts and oversight bodies scrutinise these practices. Pressure on reception systems, restrictive border measures, and responses to the instrumentalisation of migrants by third countries continue to challenge compliance with fundamental rights. Legislative changes at the external borders, following the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum (Pact), offer an opportunity to address some of the existing fundamental rights challenges. Member States must investigate allegations of fundamental rights violations at borders.
Since 12 June 2026, the Pact applies in full, bringing new rules on screening, asylum border procedures, return border procedures, Eurodac, responsibility-sharing and solidarity. At the external borders, the Pact requires screening of certain third-country nationals, including those crossing the border irregularly and people disembarked after search and rescue operations. The screening aims at assessing security risks and establishing identity as well as health and vulnerability needs before referral to the appropriate asylum or return procedure. It also expands the use of border procedures, including for applicants from countries with low recognition rates, while requiring safeguards, legal counselling and independent fundamental rights monitoring (see chapter 3).
According to the Commission’s May 2026 Report on the state of play on the implementation of the Pact, Member States have made progress, but readiness varies. For example, most have advanced in terms of establishing independent monitoring mechanisms, expanding reception capacity, reducing asylum backlogs and preparing legal counselling. The Commission identified remaining gaps in Eurodac, screening and border-procedure facilities, measures to prevent absconding and secondary movements, responsibility transfers, solidarity arrangements, and fundamental rights safeguards. The Minister of Interior of Hungary stated that the country continues to reject the Pact and does not plan to submit a national implementation plan.
In its April 2026 report, Operationalising the Pact on Migration and Asylum: Experiences from the hotspot approach, FRA presents selected lessons learnt from its permanent field presence in Greece over several years, and its visits to Greece, Italy and Cyprus in 2025 and 2026. The report suggests ways to overcome recurring fundamental rights challenges at borders, such as the pressure on reception conditions, leading to overcrowding and unlawful or arbitrary detention. These lessons intend to support the implementation of the Pact in a way that safeguards fundamental rights at external borders.
In Greece, for example, ongoing arrivals to Crete and Gavdos from Libya may provide an early test of how the new framework under the Pact is applied in practice. It will show whether people with stronger protection profiles, such as Sudanese nationals, will continue to be transferred to a registration facility on the mainland. In addition, key questions include whether detention decisions for applicants from countries with lower recognition rates, such as Pakistan, Bangladesh or Egypt, will be based on an individual necessity and proportionality assessment. The Greek Ministry of Migration and Asylum confirmed to FRA that movement restrictions and detention require a legal basis, individual assessment, necessity, proportionality, and appropriate safeguards and remedies.
Legal Centre Lesvos reports that arrivals to Lesvos and across the Northern Aegean decline while ‘reports of pushbacks, violent interceptions, disappearances, and deaths at sea continued to increase’. Allegations that Greek police used masked migrants to forcibly push asylum seekers back across the Evros border to Türkiye, were reported by the media, amid claims of violence and abuse. The Greek authorities denied wrongdoing. A 2025 Frontex Fundamental Rights Office Serious Incident Report found similar allegations of collective expulsion and inhuman or degrading treatment to be substantiated, prompting related written questions (Question E-001603/2026/rev.1 and Question E-001563/2026) to the Commission by Members of the European Parliament.
The CSO, Aegean Boat Report, posted on social media that in April 2026, some 485 people arrived on the Greek islands on 18 boats, while 39 boats carrying 783 people were stopped or rescued by the Turkish Coast Guard before reaching Greek territory or after being turned back at sea by Greek authorities.
The media reported on the sinking of a boat near Lesbos,with 43 people being rescued and one person dying. Survivors alleged the Greek Coast Guard damaged the vessel.
Concerning Cyprus, since July 2025 FRA has not received reports about excessive use of force or violations of the principle of non-refoulement during maritime border surveillance.
Between April and June 2026, at least 12 people were reported dead or missing on the Western Balkan route, according to data communicated by IOM on 10 July 2026. Data includes also fatalities which occurred outside the EU.
The 2025 annual report of the Croatian independent monitoring mechanism, published in March 2026 (page 66), identified gaps in accessing asylum at crossing points at the land border. Although the mechanism generally observed during its visits that the police respected fundamental rights, it also refers to an incident of excessive use of force during the apprehension of migrants on their way to the Slovenian border. The authorities opened investigations on the incident.
The Minister of the Interior reported in the media on 14 deaths from accidents at Croatia’s border with Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2025, and two cases of drowning in 2026. Karlovac police administration reported that in May 2026 four dead bodies and two injured people were found in the border area of Croatia with Bosnia and Herzegovina (Netretić, Donje Prilišće).
Data communicated by Save the Children to the Centre for Peace Studies in April 2026 recorded 1,155 reported summary returns from Croatia in Una-Sana Canton between January 2025 and March 2026 and more than 200 in April 2026. The Border Violence Monitoring Network’s March 2026 report (published in June) described continued summary returns at the Bosnia-Croatia border, including cases involving unaccompanied children, pregnant women, a pregnant 15-year-old girl, and children with medical needs. The 2025 report of the Croatian Ombudsman for Persons with Disabilities described irregularities in police conduct in the case of a deaf Japanese tourist who alleged violent and discriminatory treatment when traveling through Croatia. Foreign media published testimonies of more than a dozen people who reported that they had been physically assaulted and robbed by Croatian authorities.
Human Rights Watch reports that Hungary still requires asylum seekers to submit a ‘statement of intent’ at Hungarian embassies in Belgrade or Kyiv before they are allowed to enter Hungary to apply for asylum. In practice, this procedure effectively prevents them from lodging asylum in Hungary. The report also states that Hungarian authorities continue to escort people entering from Serbia back to the border fence, without examining their protection needs. Police data confirm that summary border-control practices continued in Hungary. Between April and June 2026, the police reported more than 500 prevented irregular border crossings, more than 350 persons ‘apprehended and escorted through the temporary security border barrier gate’ and around 50 persons charged with the criminal offence of unlawful border crossing.
In Lithuania, Latvia and Poland human rights CSOs issued media appeals calling on their respective governments to review practices at the Belarusian border as they may violate EU and international law. They urged that migration policy should prioritise human dignity and the rule of law rather than security-driven approaches.
Poland's temporary restriction of the right to apply for international protection at the border with Belarus, with exceptions for vulnerable groups, was extended until at least 21 July 2026. Vulnerable groups include unaccompanied children, pregnant women or the elderly. According to the Border Guard Services, the identification of such groups is based on established assessment mechanisms. In a complaint to the European Commission, the Association for Legal Intervention states that in practice the identification of such vulnerabilities is ineffective. In a letter addressed to the Minister of Interior of Poland, published April 2026, the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights acknowledges migration pressures at the Poland–Belarus border but expresses concern that Poland’s blanket suspension of access to asylum and reported summary returns—without individual assessment or effective remedies—risk violating obligations under the ECHR, including non-refoulement and the right to an effective remedy. The Polish Ombudsman asked the Interior Ministry to justify the year-long ‘temporary’ suspension of the right to apply for international protection at the Belarus border, arguing that such a severe rights restriction should be reconsidered or replaced with a less harmful measure.
Latvia extended its reinforced border-guarding regime at its border with Belarus until 31 December 2026, allowing continued heightened border surveillance and controls.
The Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers’ Chişinău Declaration of May 2026 stresses (point 38) that migrants involved in instrumentalised migratory movements are entitled to respect for and protection of their rights under the European Convention on Human Rights and other European and international law, subject to permitted limitations.
2.3. Investigations into rights violations
Some Member States increasingly see the importance of initiating investigations into reported rights violations at borders.
Concerning incidents at sea, for example, after a collision of a Hellenic Coast Guard patrol vessel with an inflatable boat carrying migrants near the island of Chios in February 2026 that resulted in 15 fatalities, the Greek authorities opened an inquiry, the according to the Hellenic Coast Guard. In France, the Dunkerque public prosecutor opened an investigation into allegations of racist behaviour involving civilian sailors aboard a private vessel chartered by the French authorities for migrant rescue operations in the English Channel, French media reported. This investigation – ongoing as of June 2026 – concerns charges of public insult on grounds of origin, ethnicity, nationality, race or religion, as well as endangering the lives of the rescued people by deliberately violating obligations of care and safety.
In Poland, in March 2026, the Siedlce District Prosecutor's Office dissolved the special team of prosecutors established by the Lublin Regional Prosecutor through Order No. 33/2024 of 17 April 2024. The team’s purpose had been to conduct investigations into alleged rights violations reported between September 2021 and March 2024 near the Polish-Belarusian border. Some 34 cases were discontinued due to lack of conclusive evidence. Criminal charges have been pressed in four cases against border guard officers before local courts, the Public Prosecutor’s Office informed the public. These criminal proceedings were still pending at the end of June 2026.
Criminal proceedings over the 2023 Pylos shipwreck, initiated in May 2025, as reported by Refugee Support Aegean, with felony prosecutions brought against 17 Hellenic Coast Guard officials, according to media reports. At the same time, disciplinary proceedings have still not been initiated as of the end of April 2026. This is 15 months after the Greek Ombudsman conducted its own preliminary investigations into possible wrongful conduct of the 17 Hellenic Coast Guard officials and the authorities’ announcement, in May 2025, that they would do so.
Despite developments, gaps remain in many EU Member States leading to a perception of impunity, which risks undermining the rule of law.
FRA offered Member States its guidance to improve transparency and accountability in investigations – see Guidance on investigating alleged ill-treatment at borders (2024). Following a 2025 update, FRA continues to monitor the situation with regard to official investigations into alleged rights violations at EU external borders.
The Pact requires Member States to adopt relevant provisions to investigate allegations of non-respect for fundamental rights in relation to the screening and the asylum border procedure (see Article 10 of the Screening Regulation, in combination with Article 43 (4) of the Asylum Procedure Regulation). Earlier Schengen evaluation recommendations had already flagged the insufficient nature of investigations, for example in Greece in 2021 and in Croatia in 2024.
The ECtHR continues to play an important role in providing victims with access to justice. In Y.F.C. and Others v. the Netherlands, the ECtHR found a violation of Article 3 of the ECHR, holding that the national authorities had failed to conduct adequate investigations into the use of force and the injuries suffered by Venezuelan asylum seekers in Curaçao, a Caribbean island and constituent entity of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
The Council of Europe’s Group of Experts on Action against Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (GREVIO) conducted a baseline evaluation of the EU and its institutions in June 2026 to assess compliance with the Istanbul Convention on violence against women. FRA contributed to the input with meetings with the GREVIO delegation with respect to the area of migration and asylum.
