Turkey, India, Tunisia or Albania and Serbia: These countries are generally less likely to grant asylum to their nationals in an EU country. On average, their refugee status recognition rate is less than 20%.
It is migrants from these countries who, according to the agreement, meet at specially designated centers at the EU’s external borders. The processing of their asylum application will be expedited. Facilitating their dismissal is challenging A maximum of six months, to their country of birth or country of transit.
These centers could eventually accommodate 120,000 migrants a year.
According to the European Commission, this quick procedure would be “more humane” by preventing people from finding themselves in long-term uncertain situations.
Flexible unity mechanism
Unaccompanied minors are not affected. Germany wanted to extend the exemption to families with children, but had to back down to reach a compromise.
Italy has already registered more than 50,000 migrants crossing the Mediterranean this year. Most of them are from Tunisia, Egypt and Bangladesh, and have no chance of staying legally.
The agreement provides greater solidarity with countries under strong migratory pressure. This is particularly the case in Italy. This solidarity takes the form of relocation of asylum seekers within the EU. States that refuse, as Hungary has already mentioned, must pay financial compensation of 20,000 euros per migrant, the estimated cost of the asylum procedure.
The agreement reached by European interior ministers will now go to the European Parliament, which can still modify the plan, with the aim of adopting the reform before the 2024 European elections.
“The Moral Compass”
For German Manfred Weber, head of the European People’s Party (EPP), the project is heading in the right direction. He defends the idea of centers on outer boundaries. According to him, a distinction should be made between asylum seekers, to avoid the eventual penalization of those actually persecuted.
This is not the opinion of the Greens in the European Parliament. A German Greens spokesman laments that states have “lost their moral compass”.
In Germany, many voices were raised this week ahead of yesterday’s summit. Dozens of leading public figures have criticized Thirukkural’s migrant turn in the public forum.
They are joined by a liberal news site Zeit onlineA few years ago, the idea of centers on European borders was condemned as “absolutely scandalous. Even today, the German government has given its approval.
