Your Rights at the EU Border: What the Law Says vs. What Actually Happens

Published June 13, 2026 · The Immigrants Editorial Team Reading time: 12 minutes

Your Rights at the EU Border: What the Law Says vs. What Actually Happens

There is a version of Europe that exists on paper.

In that version, every person who reaches EU territory has the right to request asylum. No one is expelled without an individual review of their case. No one is beaten, stripped, or thrown into a river at three in the morning. Children are not separated from parents. People in medical distress receive help.

This version of Europe is real. It is written into EU law, the Geneva Convention, and the European Convention on Human Rights — documents signed and ratified by every EU member state.

Then there is the Europe that exists at the border.

This article is about the gap between those two Europes. What your rights actually are. What is actually happening. And what you can do when the two collide.

Part I: What the Law Guarantees You

These are not opinions. These are legally binding rights — enforceable in European courts.

The Right to Seek Asylum

Under the 1951 Geneva Convention — still the cornerstone of international refugee law — any person who has a well-founded fear of persecution based on race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership of a particular social group has the right to seek asylum.

This right does not depend on:

• How you entered the country (legally or irregularly)

• Which country you came from

• Whether you have documents

• Whether you crossed through another "safe" country first

You cannot be expelled or returned to a country where you face persecution. This principle is called non-refoulement, and it is considered one of the most fundamental norms in international law.

The Right to Individual Assessment

Every asylum application must be examined individually. Mass expulsions — where groups of people are removed without any individual review — are explicitly prohibited under Article 4 of Protocol 4 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

The Right to an Effective Remedy

If your application is rejected, you have the right to appeal. And crucially, in most circumstances, that appeal must have a suspensive effect — meaning you cannot be deported while your appeal is being considered.

Protection from Torture and Degrading Treatment

Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights is absolute. No exceptions. No derogations. No "national security" override. No one in EU jurisdiction may be subjected to torture, inhuman, or degrading treatment.

This applies to how people are treated at borders. It applies in detention. It applies everywhere.

Part II: What Is Actually Happening

Now for the other Europe.

Pushbacks: 80,000 Times in 2025 Alone

A pushback is when border authorities expel a person — or a group of people — back across a border without allowing them to apply for asylum. It is illegal under both EU and international law. It happens every day.

In 2025, a coalition of nine European human rights organizations documented more than 80,000 pushbacks at EU external borders. That is an average of 221 pushbacks per day. Every day. All year.

The countries with the highest numbers: Italy, Poland, Bulgaria, and Latvia.

In 2024, the number was even higher: over 120,000 documented pushbacks. The drop in 2025 is not necessarily good news — researchers attribute it largely to an increase in interceptions before people reach EU borders, including by the Libyan coast guard, which returned at least 26,635 people to Libya in 2025 — a country with no functioning asylum system and documented torture in detention facilities.

In plain terms: Europe didn't stop the pushbacks. It moved them further away.

What Pushbacks Look Like in Practice

The legal term is clinical. The reality is not.

At the Polish-Belarusian border, humanitarian activists recovered the body of a young Ethiopian woman in a forest on the Polish side. She had crossed with a group. When her companions sought help from Polish border guards, they were pushed back to Belarus instead. She died alone, in the forest, in February. She had a Christian prayer book with pictures of saints next to her.

According to PBS NewsHour and multiple NGO reports, people at EU borders are routinely subjected to beatings, attacks by police dogs, forced stripping, and forced river crossings — at night, in winter, including people with medical conditions, including children.

These are not isolated incidents. Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the EU's own Fundamental Rights Agency, and the Council of Europe have all documented these practices as systematic — not the behavior of individual bad actors, but recurring patterns across multiple border zones.

The Courts Are Paying Attention

The European Court of Human Rights has begun to rule — and the verdicts are damning.

• In January 2026, the ECHR ruled that Greece violated the rights of an asylum seeker as part of what the Court called a "systematic practice of pushbacks."

• Cases against Poland, Latvia, and Lithuania over pushbacks at the Belarusian border are currently pending before the Court's Grand Chamber — marking the first time the ECHR has examined cases related to the weaponization of migration by a third state (Belarus).

• In 2024, the EU recorded over 120,000 pushbacks, with Greece alone accounting for 14,482 and Poland 13,600.

The EU Fundamental Rights Agency explicitly criticized the lack of accountability for these violations in its most recent assessment.

Part III: The New Asylum Pact — Does It Help or Hurt?

On June 12, 2026 — yesterday — the EU's new Migration and Asylum Pact came into full effect. We covered the practical details in our previous article. Here we look specifically at the human rights picture.

Amnesty International called the new rules "a very dark day for human rights in the EU," warning that people could now have their applications rejected without full review and be sent to countries where they have no ties, no family, and no protection.

Human Rights Watch said the Pact "takes a sledgehammer to the right to asylum at a time when the world needs Europe more than ever to champion human rights."

Three specific provisions concern rights organizations most:

Accelerated border procedures — applications assessed while people are held in border facilities, under tighter time constraints, with less access to legal advice. Faster does not mean fairer.

Safe third country rule — EU states can now refuse to examine an application if they designate another country as "safe" for the applicant. You could be sent somewhere you've never been, that you have no connection to, where your language is not spoken.

Extended detention — people deemed security risks or likely to abscond can now be detained for up to 24 months in some EU states. Children and vulnerable people have special protections on paper, but implementation varies dramatically.

The EU Commission argues these measures are necessary for a functional, sustainable asylum system. The debate is legitimate. But for anyone currently in the system — these are not abstractions.

Part IV: What You Can Do — A Practical Guide

Knowing your rights matters. But knowing what to do when they are violated matters more.

If You Are Pushed Back

Document everything as soon as you are safe:

• Date, time, location

• Number of officers present, any identification visible

• Exactly what happened, in as much detail as possible

• Names of any witnesses

• Injuries — photograph them

Report to a lawyer or NGO immediately. In Poland: Grupa Granica (grupogranica.pl). In Greece: Greek Council for Refugees (gcr.gr). In Hungary: Hungarian Helsinki Committee (helsinki.hu).

Pushback cases can be brought before national courts and the European Court of Human Rights. The ECHR has already ruled against Greece for systematic pushbacks. Your case matters — not just for you, but for the pattern of evidence being built.

If You Are Detained

You have the right to:

• Know the reason for your detention, in a language you understand

• Access a lawyer

• Contact UNHCR

• Medical care

• Contact family members or a trusted person

Detention must be reviewed regularly by an independent authority. If you believe your detention is unlawful, a lawyer can file a habeas corpus challenge.

If Your Application Is Rejected

You have the right to appeal. Do not miss the deadline — it varies by country but can be as short as 7–15 days under the new accelerated procedures.

An appeal should be handled by a qualified lawyer or legal advisor. Many NGOs provide free legal representation for asylum seekers in appeal proceedings.

If You Witness or Experience Violence at the Border

• Report to UNHCR: unhcr.org/report-concerns

• Report to the Border Violence Monitoring Network: borderviolence.eu — they specifically document pushback testimonies

• Report to the EU Fundamental Rights Agency: fra.europa.eu

These reports build the evidentiary record that is now reaching European courts.

Part V: The Bigger Picture

Something important is happening in European politics right now that directly affects everyone reading this.

The EU is spending more money on borders than ever before. The European Commission has proposed tripling migration management funding to €81 billion in the next long-term budget, including €12 billion for Frontex — the EU border agency whose mandate is expanding significantly in 2026.

At the same time, at least 1,549 people died or went missing attempting to reach EU territory by sea in just the first nine months of 2025.

These two facts exist simultaneously. More money for borders. More deaths at borders.

There is a debate to be had about migration policy — about numbers, capacity, integration, security. That debate is legitimate. But it is a separate debate from whether people at borders deserve to be treated as human beings, whether children should be pushed into rivers at night, whether a woman in a forest deserves medical help when she asks for it.

Those questions are not policy questions. They are moral ones. And the law — European law, international law — has already answered them.

The question is whether the answer is being honored.

Key Organizations and Resources

For legal help:

• UNHCR Europe — country-specific asylum information and referrals: unhcr.org/europe

• ECRE (European Council on Refugees and Exiles) — country reports, policy analysis, legal resources: ecre.org

• Asylum Information Database (AIDA) — detailed country-by-country breakdown of asylum procedures and rights: asylumineurope.org

• Hungarian Helsinki Committee — also covers broader Central/Eastern Europe: helsinki.hu

For reporting violations:

• Border Violence Monitoring Network — documents pushbacks across EU borders: borderviolence.eu

• Grupo Granica (Poland) — humanitarian monitoring at Polish-Belarusian border: grupogranica.pl

• Greek Council for Refugees — legal aid and advocacy in Greece: gcr.gr

For understanding your rights:

• Your Rights in Europe — plain-language guide from the Council of Europe: coe.int/en/web/migration-and-refugees

• EU Fundamental Rights Agency — official monitoring body: fra.europa.eu

• Amnesty International — Refugee Rights: amnesty.org/en/what-we-do/refugees-asylum-seekers-and-migrants

For emergency situations:

If you or someone you know is in immediate danger at a border:

• Call local emergency services: 112 (works across all EU countries)

• Contact UNHCR emergency line for your country

• Contact Alarm Phone (Mediterranean sea rescues): alarmphone.org

Sources Used in This Article

This article draws on reports and data from:

• Human Rights Watch World Report 2026 (hrw.org)

• Amnesty International statements on EU asylum rules, February 2026 (amnesty.org)

• Coalition NGO report on EU border pushbacks 2025, released March 2026 (infomigrants.net)

• European Court of Human Rights case records (echr.coe.int)

• EU Fundamental Rights Agency border monitoring reports (fra.europa.eu)

• ECRE reporting on Poland-Belarus border deaths (ecre.org)

• PBS NewsHour investigative reporting on EU deportation practices, March 2026 (pbs.org)

• European Parliament Research Service briefing on pushbacks, 2025 (europarl.europa.eu)

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