The EU’s Migration Pact, agreed this year and expected to enter into force in 2026, includes a crisis provision that should make it easier for countries to return people encouraged by third-country governments to migrate illegally to the EU.

The main criticism of the law by human rights groups is that it allows for pushbacks, where migrants are physically forced across a border. Pushbacks are illegal under both the European Convention on Human Rights and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.

“This law allows for pushbacks, which are always illegal,” Frank Johansson, director of Amnesty International Finland, told POLITICO. “It goes far beyond crisis regulation in the new EU migration pact; and it gives a green light for violence at the borders,” he said, adding that the law “should never have been introduced.”

Migration authorities usually assess whether someone needs protection through an interview that can last several hours. Under this law, border guards should fulfill that role, Johansson said.

“If a young gay man comes from Russia, how will the border guards assess that it is risky for him to go back? You can’t see that from the outside,” Johansson said, referring to President Vladimir Putin’s crackdown on the LGBTQ+ community.

Michael O’Flaherty, the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights, had previously expressed concerns about the compatibility of the then draft law with human rights and urged that it should not be adopted.