EU states give green light to controversial asylum reform Belgium sends top terrorist back to prison in France

The controversial reform of the EU asylum system has overcome a new hurdle. The representatives of the EU countries gave the green light in Brussels on Thursday for the planned package, which is intended to significantly tighten the current rules for migration to the European Union.

The legislative process is likely to be concluded in April with a vote in the European Parliament’s plenary session. Approval there is considered certain because European Parliament negotiators had negotiated the now available text with representatives of the Member States.

Prison-like conditions for refugees

In concrete terms, the agreement reached in December provides, among other things, for uniform procedures at the European 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 allowed to be housed in detention camps under prison conditions for a maximum of twelve weeks. In the future, people coming from a country with a recognition rate of less than 20 percent, as well as people considered a threat to public safety, will have to go through such a border procedure.

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. Humanitarian organizations criticize the plans.

The reform has been in the works since the 2015/2016 refugee crisis. 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.

(hah/sda/dpa)