Joint statement by the European Disability Forum (EDF) and the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP)
Migrants and asylum seekers with disabilities continue to face systemic exclusion from protection, support, and integration systems across the European Union (EU), despite the EU’s obligations under several human rights treaties.
That is why the European Disability Forum (EDF) and the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP) jointly launched the policy brief “A Pact That Excludes: Closing the Protection Gap for Migrants and Asylum Seekers with Disabilities in the European Union”, which shows that Europe’s migration and asylum systems remain inaccessible and discriminatory for people with disabilities.
This briefing analyses the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum from a disability perspective and urges EU institutions and Member States to take immediate action to make the Pact disability-inclusive. It shows that the EU is in breach of its obligations under the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), and other international human rights frameworks.
“The EU’s current systems are stopping persons with disabilities at its borders, leaving them without dignity or support” said Yannis Vardakastanis, President of the European Disability Forum: “This is against the very fundamental values that helped build the European Union.”
“One would expect that the EU would use the adoption of the new Pact as an opportunity to address the exclusion of migrants and asylum seekers with disabilities in line with its international legal obligations and moral values. But our review reveals that not only was this opportunity wasted, but the more restrictive migration policies make it even more difficult for migrants and asylum seekers with disabilities to access their fundamental rights in the EU,” said Elham Youssefian, IRAP’s Director of Disability Inclusion and Accessibility.
The report identifies five key areas of concern:
- Invisibility and lack of data: Persons with disabilities remain unrecognised in EU migration frameworks; and organisations of persons with disabilities are rarely consulted.
- Inaccessible reception and screening systems: Facilities and procedures often exclude people with disabilities through physical, procedural, and communication barriers.
- Exclusion from social protection: Migrants with disabilities are frequently denied access to healthcare, income support, and support services.
- Discriminatory family reunification and migration rules: Disability-related income and supports are not recognised, effectively excluding many from legal migration routes.
- Detention and return procedures: Persons with disabilities face disproportionate risks of arbitrary detention and return without adequate safeguards.
To address these systemic failures, EDF and IRAP call on the European Union and its Member States to:
- Embed disability inclusion across all elements of the EU Asylum and Migration Pact and national implementation plans.
- Guarantee accessibility and reasonable accommodation in all reception, screening, and asylum procedures. They should ensure that persons with disabilities are excluded from accelerated border processes.
- Ensure equal access to healthcare, income support, and community-based services regardless of legal status, closing the gap between reception and welfare systems.
- Eliminate discriminatory income and health requirements in migration and family reunification policies, recognising disability-related income and supports.
- End the detention of persons with disabilities in migration contexts and ensure that all return procedures include disability-sensitive safeguards.
The European Union has the duty to support and uphold the human dignity of all persons with disabilities. We urge the European Union and its Member States to uphold their commitments and immediately implement measures to reverse this systematic exclusion.