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By disregarding the Dublin Regulation—which mandated that asylum seekers be processed in the first EU country they entered—Merkel's policy opened the floodgates to numerous economic migrants, who the mainstream media often labeled as refugees. This monumental influx was accompanied by tragic scenes, such as the lifeless body of Alan Kurdi on a Turkish beach, which starkly illustrated the human cost of the crisis.
Despite eight years of political maneuvering and attempts to rectify the fallout, the EU struggled to stabilize its migration policies. Facing soaring public discontent and the rise of anti-immigration parties, EU leaders proposed a new migration pact aimed at redistributing migrants across member states rather than closing the door to future arrivals.