European Union leaders meeting on September 23, 2015, focused on how to stem the flow of asylum seekers instead of strategies for a responsible, humane response to the crisis at its borders, Human Rights Watch said today.

“Listening to EU leaders, you could almost be forgiven for thinking there is no refugee crisis,” said Judith Sunderland, associate Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Instead of bold collective action to live up to the EU’s obligations to refugees, the agenda focused on reinforcing borders, trying to stop people from getting here, and sending back those who do.”

The seven-hour meeting produced a two-page statement that makes a nod to full implementation of the common European asylum system – a set of binding laws to ensure harmonized procedures, recognition rates, and reception conditions. But the reality is that asylum seekers face a protection lottery in the EU due to wide disparities in standards and conditions, Human Rights Watch said.

Instead of addressing those issues, the statement proposes “orientations” toward “operational decisions” for upcoming meetings and largely focuses on reinforcing external borders, limiting arrivals, and expediting returns. It proposes intensified work with African countries to tackle irregular migration and strengthening controls at EU external borders with additional resources for Frontex, the EU’s external border agency, and Europol, the EU’s law enforcement agency, as well as EASO, the European Asylum Office.  READ MORE HERE