Breakthrough after years of dispute: the EU will fundamentally adjust the asylum system

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The asylum system in the EU is being fundamentally reformed. After years of discussions, representatives of EU countries and the European Parliament have finally agreed on the relevant legal texts, as the Spanish Presidency of the Council and the European Commission announced on Wednesday morning. Numerous tightenings of the previous rules are planned. The aim is to prevent irregular migration to the EU.

The agreement still needs to be confirmed by the plenary meeting of the European Parliament and the EU countries. Usually this is a formality.

The solidarity mechanism is coming

In the future, there must be uniform border procedures at the EU’s external borders. In particular, there are plans to deal much harder with people from countries that are considered relatively safe. Until a decision on the asylum application is made, people should be able to be housed in detention camps under prison-like conditions.

According to the plans, the distribution of those seeking protection among EU states will be reorganized using a ‘solidarity mechanism’: if countries do not want to accept refugees, they must provide support, for example in the form of cash payments. Rejected asylum seekers should be deported more easily to safe third countries in the future.

Since the 2015/2016 refugee crisis, intensive reform work has been underway. Countries like Greece were overwhelmed at the time by the sheer number of people from countries like Syria and hundreds of thousands were able to move on to other EU countries without registration.

Discussions since 2016

This should not have happened, because according to the so-called Dublin Regulation, asylum seekers should be registered where they first entered the European Union.

The European Commission then proposed new rules for the first time in 2016. However, the negotiations proved to be very difficult until the end. Although the proposals were not strong enough in countries such as Hungary, aid organizations and parts of the Left and Green parties expressed concern that human rights were not sufficiently respected in asylum procedures. (SDA)

Source: Blick