In 2015, more than one million people—many fleeing conflict and unstable conditions in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA)—undertook dangerous journeys to reach European shores, sparking the continent’s largest migration wave since 1985. This crisis exposed deep flaws in the EU’s asylum system: frontline states were overwhelmed, some countries refused to share responsibility, while thousands lost their lives at sea. In the years that have followed, the EU’s migration policies have shifted toward a strategy of border externalization. Building on the 2016 EU–Turkey deal, the EU has since signed similar agreements with Egypt, Tunisia, and Lebanon, offering financial aid and political incentives in exchange for outsourcing migration control to these countries. While presented as cooperative solutions, these “externalization deals” have been criticized for worsening economic precarity in transit countries, bolstering authoritarian regimes, enabling human rights abuses, fueling xenophobia in host countries, and often proving ultimately ineffective or unsustainable at reducing irregular migration flows in the medium term. In May 2024, the EU adopted its first major migration reform in over a decade—the Pact on Migration and Asylum—set to take effect in 2026. The Pact promises faster asylum procedures, stronger borders, and a system of solidarity between member states. Critics warn that its expanded fast-track processing could increase detention risks and undermine human rights.
On Thursday, September 18, 2025, The Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy (TIMEP) hosted “Beyond Fortress Europe: Rethinking Migration Governance in the EU and MENA,” a virtual event featuring Tarek Megerisi, Diana Rayes, Mohamed Lotfy, and Nadine Kheshen, moderated by Timothy E. Kaldas. Panelists engaged in a moderated discussion answering key questions: How has the EU’s migration policy evolved since 2015? What has it meant for migrants, asylum seekers, and other vulnerable communities in and from the MENA region? What lessons can be drawn from the externalization deals made with Egypt, Tunisia, and Lebanon? What can we expect from the EU’s new Migration and Asylum Pact? And as Europe drifts toward securitized and exclusionary models, what would a more humane, rights-based, sustainable, and cooperative vision of migration governance look like today?
Watch the discussion:
Speaker Profiles:
Tarek Megerisi
Tarek Megerisi is a senior policy fellow with the Middle East and North Africa programme at the European Council on Foreign Relations. His work mainly addresses how European policymaking towards the Maghreb and Mediterranean regions can become more strategic, harmonious, and incisive – with a long-term focus on Libya. For more than a decade, Megerisi has worked with various regional, European, and multilateral authorities on providing reform and stabilisation assistance to transitional states in the Middle East and North Africa. He has been involved in a range of projects, including post-conflict stabilisation, development and democratisation, Libya’s domestic and international political processes, economic reform in Tunisia, and the eastern Mediterranean disputes.
Diana Rayes
Dr. Diana Rayes is the program director of the Faith and Global Health Initiative at Georgetown University’s Global Health Institute. A global health scholar, her work explores how political crises, migration, and faith intersect to shape health systems, behaviors, and policy. Her current book examines displacement, humanitarianism, and resilience in the context of the Syrian crisis. Rayes has worked across academic, humanitarian, and multilateral sectors, including with WHO, UNICEF, and several nonprofits and think tanks, bridging research, policy, and practice in fragile settings. She is a nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council and previously held a postdoctoral appointment at Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service. She holds a Ph.D. in international health and MHS in global mental health from Johns Hopkins University and a B.S. in psychology from Arizona State University.
Mohamed Lotfy
Mohamed Lotfy is the executive director of the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms, a leading Egyptian human rights organization that has gained credibility through its courageous work on a range of issues such as enforced disappearances, freedom of expression, minorities and refugee rights. He trained hundreds of activists on documentation of rights violations, thus spreading the culture of human rights across Egypt. At Amnesty International, he worked on police and military violations, including in the aftermath of the 2011 uprising. He also studied violations against slum dwellers, such as forced evictions. He started his career at the World Organization against Torture and the International Commission of Jurists. He holds a Master’s degree in European studies and a License in Political Sciences from the Geneva University, Switzerland.
Nadine Kheshen
Nadine Kheshen is a Legal Associate at TIMEP. She is an international criminal and human rights lawyer who has been working on conflict and human rights in the Middle East since 2016. She graduated with a JD from Loyola Marymount Law School, Los Angeles, and holds a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from MacEwan University in Edmonton, Canada. Since moving to Lebanon in 2019, Nadine’s work with local organizations focused primarily on advancing the rights and treatment of Palestinian and Syrian refugees in the country. She has advised foreign and national stakeholders about the key structural and legal issues affecting refugees and helped build collaboration between local and international NGOs to improve advocacy efforts.
Timothy E. Kaldas
ModeratorTimothy E. Kaldas is the Deputy Director of the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy. He is also an adjunct professor of international relations at the Autonomous University of Barcelona where he is pursuing his PhD. His current research interests focus on the political economies of MENA countries, regime competition and survival strategies and Egypt’s foreign policy. He lived in Cairo, Egypt for 12 years from 2008 to 2020 where he worked in several fields including as a visiting professor of politics at Nile University, a wedding photographer, an independent risk consultant, a consultant at UN Migration, and Director of Communications at the Munathara Initiative. His writing has been published by Mada Masr, Bloomberg, Foreign Policy, CNN, World Politics Review and a number of other publications and institutions. He studied at the George Washington University, the London School of Economics and Political Science, Georgetown University and the American University of Cairo.