EU Pact on Migration and Asylum

• A brief physical security check to ensure no dangerous objects enter the facility.
• Basic reception arrangements and registration of arrival.
• Initial information provision so that people understand that they are being screened, what it involves, and what their basic rights and obligations are.

• Performed by medical professionals.
• Identifies urgent medical needs and any public-health risks.
• Helps spot people who need immediate medical help or extra support.
• If more checks are needed, these happen later under the normal national procedures.

• If the person has personal documents, authorities verify the identity of the person and the authenticity of the documents.
• If not, they carry out identification using biographical data and biometrics (fingerprints and a facial image), if the person is at least six years of age.
• With the use of biometrics, the authorities register the person in the Eurodac system.

• The collected data are checked against relevant national, EU and international databases to detect security alerts or previous records, in accordance with EU law and data protection safeguards.

• While border guards have a general duty to proactively identify and refer vulnerable persons throughout all migration management processes, the Screening Regulation provides for a specific preliminary vulnerability check within the screening process.
• Authorities carry out a short, structured assessment to identify vulnerable persons, such as children (including unaccompanied minors), families, people with disabilities, or possible victims of trafficking or torture.
• The outcome helps to ensure the right safeguards, information and reception conditions are applied throughout the process; however, the final check is to be conducted by national authorities in the ensuing procedure.

• All information from the previous steps is registered in a screening form.
• The officer conducting screening, with support of an interpreter where needed, clarifies whether the person intends to apply for international protection, whether they have family links elsewhere in the EU, and whether there is any other relevant information on the individual case.
• Upon completion, the person can review the information recorded about them in the screening form, except confidential security-check data, and indicate if anything needs to be corrected.
• The form does not replace an asylum or return procedure. It is a structured way to collect initial information which will also serve later for the asylum or return procedure.

• On the basis of the screening, the person is referred to the appropriate procedure under EU and national law, such as asylum or return.
• During the referral stage, the national authority that conducted the screening directs the person and transfers the screening form to the national authority responsible for the asylum or return procedure.
• In certain situations defined in the Pact, border procedures may apply, with specific timelines and conditions.
• The screening could also be followed by relocation to another Member State under the solidarity mechanism foreseen in the Pact.

Throughout the process, fundamental rights must be respected and people must be informed, in a language they understand, about what is happening and what their rights are.