BRUSSELS — European Union officials on Monday were finalizing a major overhaul of its migration system, including streamlined deportations and increased detentions.
There has long been a fierce debate among EU members about migration. Since a surge in asylum-seekers and other migrants to Europe a decade ago, public debate on the issue has shifted and far-right parties have gained political power. EU migration policies have hardened, and the number of asylum-seekers is down from record levels.
President Trump in recent days issued sharp criticism of EU migration policies as part of a new national security strategy that paints European allies as weak.
Ministers meeting in Brussels quickly agreed to a “safe third country” concept and a list of safe countries of origin, said Danish minister Rasmus Stoklund. It means that EU nations can deny residency and deport migrants because they either hail from a safe country or could apply for asylum in one outside the EU.
“We will be able to reject people that have no reason for asylum in Europe, and then it will be possible for us to make mechanisms and procedures that enable us to return them faster,” Stoklund said. “It should not be human smugglers that control the access to Europe, but it should be the European governments elected by the European people.”
Ministers also agreed to the formation of a “solidarity pool” to share costs of hosting refugees among member nations. The pool is designed to collect $489 million to disburse to countries facing greater migratory pressure including Cyprus, Greece, Italy and Spain in southern Europe. Hungary and Poland have long opposed any obligation for countries to host migrants or pay for their upkeep.
“It is important to give the people also the feeling back that we have control over what is happening. It is everything about bringing our European house in order,” said Magnus Brunner, the EU’s commissioner for migration.
Human rights groups said the EU’s toughening of migration rules would mean more misery, not less migration.
“Instead of investing in safety, protection and inclusion, the EU is choosing policies that will push more people into danger and legal limbo,” said Silvia Carta, advocacy officer at the Brussels-based Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants.
The European Council will now negotiate with the 720 lawmakers at the European Parliament to accept or modify the changes in migration policy.
In May, EU nations endorsed sweeping reforms to the bloc’s asylum system, with the European Commission issuing the new Pact on Migration and Asylum. The pact, among other things, called for increasing deportations and setting up “ return hubs,” a euphemism for deportation centers for rejected asylum-seekers.
Mainstream political parties hope the pact resolves the issues that have divided EU nations since well over 1 million migrants swept into Europe in 2015, most of them fleeing war in Syria and Iraq.
The EU wouldn’t set up or manage such “return hubs,” which could be in Europe or elsewhere, but would create the legal framework to allow states to negotiate with non-EU countries willing to take rejected asylum-seekers.
It differs from the existing but so far ineffective deal signed by Italy with Albania to offshore the asylum processing of migrants rescued at sea. At the time, the contentious plan was applauded by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen as an “out-of-the-box” solution to manage irregular migration, but courts in Italy have repeatedly blocked it.
McNeil writes for the Associated Press.
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