Abstract

The only difference between the word ‘humane’ and ‘inhumane’, is the use of ‘in’ at the beginning and if such migrants, refugees and immigrants are never ‘in’ the territory of the European Union (‘EU’) and its member states, then such practices will always be deemed to be humane. The paper seeks to examine and analyse the themes and that still hold true and are relevant to the present public discourse, concerning the New Pact on Migration and Asylum. The treatment by Greece of the thousand migrants who were abandoned at sea, the destruction of the Moira refugee camp at Lesbos, brings to light the inhumane EU immigration laws and deportation programme. Themes such as setting up of targets with respect to the number of illegal refugees to be expulsed or deported, the increasing influence of nationalist sentiments by nationalist and populist parties in enabling and implementing such measures, the use of force in the process, the dangers that such people face once returned and the impact of such policies on children will be discussed in the paragraphs to come.

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