For decades now, but especially since the so-called ‘migration crisis’ of 2015, EU migration policy has framed migration as a security threat and has increasingly focused on border externalisation. This is a strategy whereby the EU and its member states seek to prevent people on the move from reaching, or staying on, EU territory by outsourcing migration management and border policing to non-EU states.

In practice, as explained by the think-tank European Council on Foreign Relations, the EU externalisation strategy has led to the creation of ‘buffer zones’ at the EU’s external borders. This has taken place through migration deals with third countries, aimed at improving their border management and migrant interception abilities, as well as the spinning of an “intricate web of funding mechanisms for a range of projects: from security initiatives to limit migrants’ mobility to those aimed at improving migrants’ quality of life in transit countries.”

Border police at one of the country borders along the Balkan Route. Photo courtesy of the Border Violence Monitoring Network.

The New EU Pact on Migration and Asylum

The EU’s new Pact on Migration and Asylum was adopted by the European Parliament on 10th April 2024 after years of negotiations as well as widespread criticism from NGOs. It represents a continuation of the securitisation of migration and the externalisation of EU’s refugee protection responsibilities. Securing the EU’s external borders through improved border controls and embedding migration in international partnerships – which essentially refers to the externalisation of migration management to non-EU states – are some of the key elements of the Pact.

Migration deals such as the ones that have already been struck between the EU, or by its individual member states, and countries like Türkiye, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Mauritania, Rwanda and Albania to reduce onward movement, are likely to multiply in the coming years. The latest occurred at the start of May 2024, when the EU pledged €1 billion to Lebanon to bolster its border control and deter Syrians living there from departing for Cyprus.

Shortly after the adoption of the Pact, a group of 15 EU member states issued a joint call pushing for further externalisation of EU migration policy and the development of strong partnerships with key countries, especially along the migratory routes, following the example of the deals that the EU has struck in the past.

Even more controversially, the signatories called on the EU to explore solutions aimed at "rescuing migrants on the high seas and bringing them to a predetermined place of safety in a partner country outside the EU." This paves the way for the entire EU to switch to a model similar to the one agreed in November 2023 between Italy and Albania, in which Italy plans to outsource the processing of up to 36,000 asylum applications per year to the Balkan country.

The EU’s externalisation of migration control to third states has been criticised as increasing the likelihood of those states committing human rights violations, including pushbacks, arbitrary detention and refoulement, “with what amounts to the blessing – or at least tacit approval – of the EU”, and for the system’s lack of transparency, oversight, and accountability.

*Refugees protesting in front of the UNHCR headquarters in Tunis, March 2023. Photo:* *Refugees in Libya*.

Extending externalisation to Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) is strategically important to the EU as a migration management partner due to its EU candidate status and its geographical location. It sits on the EU’s current external border and is a key transit country on the Western Balkan migration route, which remains the second-most active route taken by migrants to reach the EU. It is therefore very likely that the further externalisation of EU migration management under the new EU Pact will extend to BiH.

While the EU’s plans for BiH are shrouded in secrecy with very little concrete information available online, many local actors believe that the externalisation process is already under way.

BiH has been a key state for developing the EU’s south-eastern buffer for a long time. Readmission agreements are part of the EU's broader strategy to manage migration through cooperation with neighbouring countries, ensuring that individuals who do not have the right to stay in the EU can be effectively returned to their countries of origin or transit. The EU has had such an agreement in place with BiH since 2008.

BiH has also received generous funding from the EU and its member states, focused primarily on measures for control (rather than reception or integration, for example), since the ‘migration crisis’ of 2015.

*People on the move in BiH, near Blazuj. Photo: Guillaume Flament.*

Recent developments in Bosnia and Herzegovina

As reported by Statewatch in 2021, after the new Pact’s introduction, the European Council stated that to “reduce pressure on European borders, mutually beneficial partnerships and cooperation with countries of origin and transit will be intensified, as an integral part of the EU’s external action.” Both the European Commission and the High Representative (chief of the EU’s foreign policy arm, the European External Action Service) were tasked by the European Council to immediately take concrete action and develop action plans for priority countries of origin and transit. These priority countries included BiH and an action plan for the country was drafted.

The draft action plan states that the EU aims to:

"support Bosnia and Herzegovina in building its ability to manage migration, in particular by reinforcing the asylum system and reception capacities, enhancing border management, countering irregular migration [and] improving the legal framework and operational capacities for return (including in the framework of the recently signed readmission agreement with Pakistan).”

Following this, in 2022, EU Commissioner Olivér Varhelyi announced that the EU intends to increase their funding by 60%, to at least €350 million, for their Western Balkan partners, to support them in developing effective migration management systems, including asylum and reception, border security and returns. Two years later, in January 2024, the Council of Ministers of BiH announced that it would set up a new State Commission for the Border, which will be in charge of integrated border management and should, among other things, create conditions for the deployment of the EU’s border agency Frontex on its borders.

Frontex status agreements already exist with the Western Balkan non-EU countries of Albania, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia. Since 2019, when Frontex launched its first operation in a non-EU country, around 500 officers have been deployed in the Balkan region.

In February 2024, the European Union announced the start of a project to provide an additional €6.4 million to strengthen border and migration management in BiH due to the substantial rise in the number of arrivals in recent years. The following month, the interior minister of neighbouring EU country Croatia highlighted that more than 50% of asylum seekers in Croatia were citizens of countries such as Türkiye, Russia and China which have visa-free agreements with BiH and/or Serbia. He called on BiH to tighten its visa rules to curb the flow of migrants.

Bosnia and Herzegovina’s future in the EU

In March 2024, EU leaders agreed to open accession talks with BiH, eight years after the country first applied for EU membership. They stressed that the Western Balkan country would have to make further reforms before its application moved forward.

One of the 14 key priorities to initiate these accession negotiations with the EU was for the authorities in BiH to ensure the effective functioning of the border management, migration and asylum systems – leaving no doubt that the support of the country in this area is essential if it wants to continue the path of accession. Shortly prior to the opening of accession talks, the European Commission did indeed praise BiH for having taken significant steps to improve migration management with the approval of the mandate to negotiate a Frontex status agreement.

However, it is crucial to note that the launch of EU accession talks only puts BiH at the start of a long process of further reforms that usually last for many years before a country finally joins the EU. This means that the EU can continue to use the ‘carrot and stick’ of potential EU membership and pre-accession funding to impel BiH to comply with its migration control demands while shielding itself from accountability for the deadly conditions, pushbacks and other human rights violations that stem directly from its policies.

Critics have gone as far as raising the question of “whether these accession policies are concerned less with admitting new members than with keeping states in a perpetual pre-accession status whereby they implement EU border policies unchecked, which would not happen if they were member states.”

Words by Advocacy and Communications Officer, Lukia Nomikos.

The new EU Pact on Migration and EU border externalisation in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Part One