Amsterdam – ESI presentation: The perfect and the incoherent as the enemies of the good – Why humane EU borders remain elusive

18 January 2022
Video: Amsterdam Centre for European Studies (ACES)

ESI’s Gerald Knaus was invited to give the opening talk for a lecture series on the future of the Common European Asylum System (CEAS), organised by the Amsterdam Centre for European Studies (ACES).

Gerald said that the EU urgently needs an alternative and humane policy for controlling irregular migration, which does not break legal principles by resorting to force or illegal refoulement. In recent years, several governments saw their options as only either losing control of borders or regaining it by breaking EU law and pushing back irregular migrants. But there is a third option, involving diplomacy, strategic returns, and resettlement of refugees. Moving towards such a humane border policy requires clear thinking based on facts. Europeans need to cast aside myths, illusions, and wishful thinking if they want to develop a positive vision of refugee protection in the 21st century.