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The Commission’s plans include asylum procedures at the EU’s external borders, faster deportations and the appointment of a “return coordinator”. If there are large numbers of refugees, all member states should also be obliged to show “solidarity” with the countries of arrival. To do this, they can host refugees or help with deportations.
The aid organization Caritas believes that the reform plans endanger the basic and human rights of asylum seekers. A solidarity mechanism that “gives EU member states the opportunity to avoid admission by facilitating the return of migrants” is “unacceptable”, said Caritas Europa director Maria Nyman. The focus on the protection of external borders and repatriations will necessarily be at the expense of the basic principles of international law on the humanitarian treatment of refugees.
“The fire that completely destroyed the Moria refugee camp in Greece shows the failure of Europe,” said Ryan, Oxfam chief. But the Commission apparently continued to apply the refugee concentration approach, which “only led to massive suffering in overcrowded and abandoned refugee camps.”
Migration researcher: “Fortress Europe” remains the guiding principle
Migration scientist from the Delors Institute and the University of Nantes, Yves Pascouau, evaluated the Commission’s plans as merely “cosmetic” changes. Nothing will change in the “logic and philosophy” of the existing asylum rules. “It will respond to emergency situations, to the demands of the Member States,” said the researcher. But he doesn’t see a “basic framework” for a new beginning.
The only recognizable strategy remains the idea of ”Fortress Europe,” isolation through the protection of external borders and deportations, Pascouau said. “That is the only point on which the EU countries agree.”
“It is difficult to understand that the EU has not learned from its recent mistakes,” said Anita Bay Bundegaard, European Director of Save the Children.
Attempts to reform Europe’s asylum system have repeatedly failed since the height of the refugee crisis in 2015. The sticking point has always been the distribution of refugees to the other EU states to ease the burden on the countries of arrival like Italy or Greece at the external borders. Eastern European countries like Hungary and Poland categorically refused to accept migrants.
Seehofer: “Don’t take cover now”
Federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer welcomed the proposal from the EU Commission. The proposal is “a good basis for future discussions” in order to reach an agreement on the controversial issue. He called on the other EU states “not to cover themselves reflexively now”, but to work out a common concept. The Federal Government now has the opportunity to reach an agreement during its Presidency of the Council of the EU before the end of the year.
The chance of a “political understanding” being reached on this basis is “very high,” Seehofer said. But heads of state and government may also have to help with this difficult issue.
That Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz rejects the idea of solidarity in asylum policy makes him very sad, Seehofer said. After all, even Italy, which as a country with an external EU border already makes a significant contribution, recently accepted refugees from the Greek island of Lesbos, but Austria did not.
Politicians also criticized the Brussels proposal: “Today’s attempt by the EU Commission to loosen the rigid Dublin system was backward and right, but it does not go far enough,” said FDP MEP Nicola Beer. “Today would have been a good day to finally abolish this political impasse. It is hard to imagine how this ‘Dublin light’ from the EU Commission could bring qualitative relief for the Mediterranean countries.”
“The weak point of the Commission’s proposal is that many people in the camps will continue to suffer at the external borders,” said Erik Marquardt, spokesman for refugee policy for the Greens / EFA group in the European Parliament, on Twitter. “Apparently Moria is supposed to become EU law and it will not be avoided.”
SPD MEP Katarina Barley is also skeptical: “The main responsibility and therefore the main burden continues to fall on the outer border states, for example Greece, but also Italy, Malta, Spain. Now they should receive more help. from the other member states. I’m excited if it will work out in the end, because we’ve often tried to do it. And so far neither threats nor incentives have helped. “
