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Migration Pact: The news from the European asylum policy

2024-05-15 09:34:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

Migration Pact: The news from the European asylum policy

Illustrative photo

After almost a decade of persistent talks, the Council of the EU, i.e. the representatives from the 27 member countries, put their stamp on the fundamental reform of the asylum process in the EU on Tuesday (14.5.2024). The so-called Migration Pact, consisting of ten laws, will notably reduce the numbers of new arrivals of migrants, speed up asylum processes and place them at the EU's external borders. According to data from the EU statistics office, Eurostat, the number of asylum requests last year was 1.14 million. For years this number has been constantly increasing. In addition, since 2022, around four million war refugees from Ukraine have settled in the EU.

How will asylum processes develop at the external borders?

After arriving by land, sea or air, asylum seekers and refugees must be identified within seven days and registered in the extended biometric data, "Eurodac".

Migrants from countries with admission quotas below 20 percent will be held at the border, immobile for a maximum period of 12 weeks. In these camps, which must now be set up in Greece, Italy, Malta, Spain, Croatia and Cyprus, the decision will be made on who will return to their homeland, without the need to do other verifications. This affects a minority of newcomers. The capacity of these camps should be throughout the EU, for 30 thousand people.

Migrants from countries with higher acceptance quotas will enter the normal asylum process. This process, which today can last for years, should be completed in a shorter period of time. Asylum seekers whose application is rejected must be deported directly from the external borders.

How will the states located on the external borders be relieved?

EU states where migrants arrive first will give other EU states a share of asylum seekers or migrants who have a high chance of being granted asylum. Among EU member states, a "compulsory solidarity" should rule. States such as Hungary, which do not want to accept anyone, must pay a compensation or send personnel and equipment to EU countries, where migrants take the first step when entering the EU. The compensation amount is 20,000 euros for each migrant who is not accepted.

This compensation system is not established by law, but must be considered on a case-by-case basis by the member countries. If a country feels overwhelmed, then it can relax the laws and ask for more solidarity. In the event that this "case of crisis" occurs, then all 27 states make decisions together. There is thus a lot of room for political strife.

How will destination countries be facilitated by migrants?

Many asylum seekers have so far wanted to go directly from Greece or Italy to Germany, Austria, France or the Netherlands and Belgium. The same applies to asylum seekers whose application has not been accepted. The country where the migrants first go, for example Italy, would be effectively obliged to re-accept those migrants whose asylum request has not been accepted by other countries. But in practice this does not happen. The new Migration Pact elaborates this rule once more. The lures for internal migration in the EU, the so-called pull factors, should be weakened through the establishment of unified admission conditions and payments across the EU.

Will deportations of rejected asylum seekers be simplified?

The new Migration Pact envisages that in the future people will be deported earlier and will return to countries that have been declared safe countries of origin or transit. For this, the EU is trying to reach more agreements with third countries, so that they accept more rejected migrants. As an example, the recently reached agreement with Tunisia is often mentioned here. Through economic aid, Tunisia has declared to accept its citizens again. As for people from sub-Saharan Africa who migrate to the EU via Tunisia, the Tunisian government has said it will not allow them to enter Tunisia. An agreement reached with Turkey in 2016 led to fewer Syrian refugees entering Greece for four consecutive years. Meanwhile, this agreement is no longer in force, because Turkey no longer accepts Syrians coming from Greece.

How can multiple asylum applications be prevented?

EU border guards will in future register all entries into the EU, without creating loopholes, and will dump biometric data into an expanded data bank, to be used by all authorities of Europe. This is how it will be seen if a migrant, whose request has not been accepted in Greece, for example applies for asylum in Austria as well, or travels to many EU countries. These asylum seekers will be more easily forced to return to the country where they first violated the EU and from there, to their country of origin. Attempts to force registration have been made several times since 2015. The existing database, Eurodac, which only stores fingerprints, has had major gaps and technical deficiencies.

Why does the Migration Pact remain controversial?

Proponents of the Pact argue that tightening the rules and processes, leading to faster deportations, will continue to create a climate of fear. Thus, fewer people will take the path of migration, because the chances of staying in Europe with a rejected asylum request or without another regular process will decrease.

Those who criticize the Pact complain that the right to asylum in the EU has been weakened and in the future those who really need protection will be deported. The death of refugees in the Mediterranean Sea will continue.

How will it be done next?

Now, as the various laws and decrees of the Migration Pact must be implemented, it remains to be seen whether and how all EU member states will comply with the new obligations. Will Italy set up closed border camps? Will the countries of northern and eastern Europe really show solidarity to accept migrants or finance their acceptance? The implementation of the new rules will take up to two years. So in a few years it will be seen if the number of asylum seekers will really decrease. /DW