World Refugee Day 2025: don't let national emergency measures become the new standard of EU asylum policy
BIRMM POLICY BRIEF N° 01/2025
By Florian Trauner
World Refugee Day is observed every year on June 20th. Led by the United Nations, its purpose is to raise awareness of the plight of refugees and internally displaced persons who have been forced to flee their homes due to war, conflict, or individual persecution. The day also underscores the importance of the 1951 Geneva Convention and the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights—both of which affirm the right to seek protection from persecution in another country. Yet, this very right is increasingly being undermined in Europe. Several EU member states have begun addressing asylum-related challenges through emergency measures. This trend has accelerated since the so-called ‘migration crisis’, which began in the summer of 2015. This Policy Brief tracks this development and recommends against normalizing emergency regimes in terms of dealing with refugees and asylum seekers in Europe.
Key Issues:
- In Europe, the situation of people in need of protection is getting more precarious - fundamental rights risk being eroded by emergency asylum policies of EU member states.
- A series of crises and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have led to security considerations dominating asylum policy.
- The revised EU asylum laws give this type of measures greater significance, potentially facilitating rather than reversing this development.
- This Policy Brief recommends that national emergency measures should be applied with utmost care – and not to become a new standard in terms of how to deal with asylum-related challenges in the EU.