The European Union aims to strengthen border protection and introduce a comprehensive migration system as part of a new reform that, according to officials, will give member states more control over the arrival and departure of migrants. “For the first time, we have a comprehensive European system,” said Magnus Brunner, the EU’s migration chief.
The main changes outlined in the reform include strengthened border procedures, a mechanism for accelerated rejection of applications, a solidarity mechanism for distributing the burden among member states, and a system for responding to unexpected migration surges.
Strengthening border procedures
Migrants who enter the European Union illegally will undergo identity and security checks lasting up to seven days. During this process, their identification documents, facial biometric data, and fingerprints will be entered into a database. This screening aims to determine who should receive an accelerated or standard asylum application process and who should be sent back to their country of origin or transit.
Human rights groups argue that this process will effectively lead to the detention of most migrants, including children, for the entire duration of the screening.
Another change is the “accelerated rejection” mechanism. Asylum seekers deemed a security threat or with low chances of obtaining refugee status will be processed more quickly. This applies, for example, to citizens of Morocco and Bangladesh, who are denied protection in at least 80% of cases. Applications under the accelerated procedure will be considered in centers near the “external borders” of the EU—land borders, ports, and airports—and will take up to 12 weeks. For other asylum seekers, the standard procedure will continue to apply.
Human rights organizations point out that the accelerated process will, in most cases, lead to a further period of detention and hasty decision-making.
Solidarity mechanism and crisis response
The reform introduces a “solidarity mechanism” aimed at easing the burden on countries such as Italy, Greece, and Malta, which in recent years have received the bulk of land and sea arrivals. Under this mechanism, member states are required to accept a certain number of asylum seekers arriving in countries on the external border or pay 20,000 euros (23,000 US dollars) per asylum seeker to countries under pressure.
At least 30,000 asylum seekers per year will be covered by this relocation system. The negotiations related to the solidarity mechanism have already proven complicated, and during the first round last year, several countries refused to accept any relocations.
The package also establishes an emergency “response to surges” system for unexpected migration surges, similar to the 2015-2016 crisis, when over two million asylum seekers, many of whom were from war-torn Syria and Afghanistan, entered the bloc. This system will allow member states to reduce protections for asylum seekers, enabling their longer detention in centers on the EU’s external borders. The system will also apply to “instrumentalization” of migration flows—an accusation often made against Belarus and Russia, which, according to the EU’s neighbors, send migrants across the border to destabilize the 27-country bloc.
Source: RFI