An asylum dispute has been smoldering between the EU countries for years. Now things could get moving. The focus is on an old foray from Horst Seehofer.
- The EU has been fighting for years over the distribution of refugees among the member states.
- Now, just before the German EU Council Presidency, movement could come into the deadlock.
- The EU Commission sends the first signals - and takes up a suggestion from Horst Seehofer.
Brussels / Berlin - The Corona crisis had recently pushed almost everything else off the agenda. But now political life outside of the fight against pandemics is slowly picking up speed again - and the EU actually wants to solve an old issue of dispute: it is about dealing with asylum and migration in the Union.
Shortly before the start of the German EU Council Presidency , the conflict that has been smoldering for years is moving. The first alliances are also emerging - somewhat surprisingly. The EU Commission sent its first signals on Thursday. Shortly before, Ute Vogt , SPD's domestic policy expert, had requested an announcement from Brussels. "We can't go on like this. Dublin failed, ”she told Handelsblatt a few hours earlier .
Asylum dispute: From the Leyens vice now supports Seehofer plan - New plan for EU external borders?
For example, the Commission, like Germany, is apparently pushing for the planned asylum reform to fundamentally change the way in which people seeking protection at the EU's external borders are dealt with. "Something has to happen from the moment someone comes to the EU's external border," said Vice-President Margaritis Schinas at the " Delphi Economic Forum ". This could not only be left to the first countries of entry.
The Federal Government insists that it is checked at the EU's external borders whether a migrant is in need of protection. If not, he should be brought back home with the help of the EU border protection agency Frontex . Due to falling numbers of immigrants, this would also simplify the question of the distribution of those entitled to protection.
Schinas, who is also responsible for migration in the EU authority , now said: "We have to organize a comprehensive structure in which EU agencies and EU rules are responsible from the first moment, so that we can quickly decide who is entitled to asylum and who is not ”. The Dublin rules , according to which the EU country is usually responsible for an asylum application, on whose soil the person seeking protection first entered European soil would then no longer apply .
# Dublin procedure: Due to many questions & current reporting, we would like to clear up some misunderstandings about this. #Asyl pic.twitter.com/GdU3FydTzG
- Federal Ministry of the Interior, Construction and Home Affairs (@BMI_Bund) August 13, 2017Migration Zoff in Europe: is there a solution? Seehofer proposal leaves back door for Hungary and Co.
The EU Commission wants to present its proposals for the long-awaited asylum and migration reform this month , which the EU states and the European Parliament could then negotiate. The international community has not been making progress on this for a long time. The crux of the matter is how people seeking protection are distributed across the EU countries. Some countries such as Hungary, Austria and Poland totally refuse to be committed to accepting people.
In fact, the negotiations could therefore take some time. A lot is still in motion, the Handelsblatt claims to have learned from EU circles. At the same time, German Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is planning "a big hit".
Even Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (CSU) is pressing against his political retirement on a solution. Together with colleagues from France, Spain and Italy, he pushed for a binding distribution key in April. The ministers left a back door open in their letter to the Commission: “Other solidarity measures” were also possible as an “exception”. Seehofer himself had the issue of asylum within the Union and the GroKo escalated violently in 2018.
Asylum in the EU: The number of applications is falling rapidly - the cause is probably almost solely the corona crisis
At least for the moment, the situation at the borders seems relatively relaxed: the number of asylum applications has fallen in the EU in April, up 87 percent compared to the beginning of the year - and thus to its lowest level since 2008. background are the measures to curb the coronavirus , announced the European asylum authority Easo on Thursday. Only 8,730 asylum applications were registered, the lowest in the past twelve years.
The agency said that it was not necessarily a long-term development. Prior to the Corona crisis, applications were consistently high . The development is therefore more a sign of the impact of the pandemic than an indication that applications for international protection are declining. It is quite possible that the number of applications will increase again after the cancellation of the corona measures.
The largest group of applicants continues to be Syrians and Afghans with a total of 28 percent. Asylum applications from people from Venezuela and Colombia , which were among the most important countries of origin before the Corona crisis, declined almost completely, by 99 and 98 percent, respectively. The report gives the figures for all EU countries as well as Norway and Switzerland, but not Great Britain.
Asylum and migration in the EU: Amnesty reports violent attacks by the Croatian border police
But there are still problems and conflicts at the EU's external borders. The human rights organization Amnesty International accuses the Croatian border police of an unprecedented level of brutality in dealing with refugees and migrants. People coming across the “green” border from neighboring Bosnia and being caught would be beaten and kicked in such a way that they often suffered complicated broken bones and severe head wounds, Amnesty said on Thursday.
The organization relies on the accounts of 16 Pakistanis and Afghans who have been subjected to ill-treatment, as well as the testimony of doctors in Bosnia who treated them. Irregular border crossers in Croatia have already been ill-treated and sent back to Bosnia. With regard to the recent injuries, Amnesty speaks of a massive escalation.
Before the outbreak of the corona pandemic, unsustainable conditions on the Greek-Turkish border had also made negative headlines.
AFP / dpa / fn