So far, nine countries have refused to sign the UN migration pact, with representatives of other countries expressing hesitation over the plans. Some states are concerned that a legally non-binding convention and set of recommendations will become an unwritten law over time. Others worry that the text of the document inconsistently differentiates legal from illegal migration.
The Pact has been refused by Australia, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Israel, Hungary, Poland, Austria, Slovakia, and the USA. Belgium, Denmark, Croatia, Italy, Japan, Germany, the Netherlands, and Slovenia are hesitating to sign it. The country can be divided into several groups on the basis of the reasons why they oppose the pact.
The United States was the first to refuse the pact. The reason for Trump’s approach could be paraphrased as “it is not going to happen“, which is probably based on the fact that it was Obama who came up with it and secondly, the pact concerns immigration.
Then Hungary and Austria followed. The Hungarian Prime Minister considers the pact “the UN´s worst possible answer to migration”. According to Orban, the number of migrants will only increase as a result of this agreement. According to Austria, the pact establishes a “human right to migration” and also a part of the Christian Democrats in Germany has similar fears that the text will become legally binding.
The Czech Republic has the problem of an inconsistent distinction between legal and illegal migration, and Australia, which is a country with very strict immigration policy, also has concerns about “encouraging” illegal immigration. Also, Poland and Slovakia reject the pact for the same reasons.
Threats to national interests and the uselessness of the pact are the reason for the rejections by Israel and Bulgaria. “We are taking responsibility for protecting our borders,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last week.
