Crossing the Mediterranean remains one of the most common routes for irregular migration from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region to Europe—a perilous journey that claims thousands of lives annually, and subjects migrants and asylum seekers to trafficking, detention in inhumane conditions, and violence.
In response to the increasing arrival of migrants, European countries have implemented various policies, including signing deals with third countries, to prevent migrants and asylum seekers from reaching Europe in the first place. Through these deals, European countries externalize migration control to third countries by financially supporting their efforts to combat migration, while turning a blind eye to their poor human rights records and insufficient legal frameworks to protect the migrants’ rights. In 2023 and 2024, the EU signed such agreements with Tunisia, Egypt, and Lebanon.
As part of an institutional effort to promote fair and just migration policies, TIMEP has produced three explainers examining the EU’s deals with Egypt, Lebanon, and Tunisia. These explainers shed light on the deals’ publicly available materials, the overall human rights situation of refugees and asylum seekers in each of these countries, and their legal frameworks relevant to refugee rights. Together, these explainers lay out a clear policy argument: unless the deals push for genuine human rights reforms, many migrants will continue risking their lives to reach Europe, rendering the agreements not only violative of human rights, but also deeply ineffective in the long-term.
The three explainers: