Meeting of EU interior ministers: this is how the EU wants to keep Afghanistan refugees out

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Federal Minister of the Interior Horst Seehofer in Brussels: "You have to drill thick boards"

Photo: Francois Walschaerts / AFP

Around 20 years of war, hundreds of thousands dead, many billions of euros from Western investments - and now the radical Islamic Taliban have taken power again in Afghanistan.

The EU is now trying to prevent what it sees as the worst: a new large wave of refugees, possibly on a similar scale as in 2015.

That became clear on Tuesday at a meeting of EU interior ministers.

"On the basis of previous experience," the statement subsequently published, states that the EU countries are "determined to act together to prevent another large illegal immigration movement."

The message to Afghanistan is clear: With the evacuation of its own citizens and those Afghans who have helped the West in recent years, the EU's target has been fulfilled for the time being.

Whoever else wants to flee from the radical Islamic Taliban, who have taken power again after 20 years, should stay in the region - and by no means come to Europe.

The example of the Turkey deal

To this end, the EU wants to use the means that have already been used to persuade countries like Turkey and Libya to take in refugees and prevent them from continuing to travel to the EU: a lot of money, material and personnel.

Afghanistan's neighboring countries should »be given strong support in taking in and caring for refugees, said German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer.

The EU Commission should quickly put in place a corresponding action plan - and not save at the wrong end.

"You have to drill thick boards," says Seehofer.

The admission of people at risk - such as judges, women activists, human rights activists or journalists - is only mentioned in passing in the ministers' declaration.

"Support could be provided in the form of resettlement on a voluntary basis," it says in a rather vague manner.

Luxembourg's Foreign and Migration Minister Jean Asselborn was not enough - so much too little that he initially blocked the declaration, "for the first time in 17 years as Foreign Minister," as he told SPIEGEL.

"When it comes to saving human lives, you have to show a clear edge and sometimes find hard words."

Asselborn had previously accused Austria's Chancellor Sebastian Kurz and the Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa of rejecting "direct human solidarity" with the Afghans.

"You lose the quality of being European," Asselborn told the world.

The Austrian Foreign Minister Schallenberg wedged back and accused Asselborn of "cheap populism".

Austria has taken in six times as many Afghans per population as Luxembourg.

Seehofer criticized both sides.

Austria has long refused to adopt a common EU asylum policy.

And Asselborn should "look a little more closely at the problems that large EU countries have," said Seehofer.

After all, there are already many thousands of Afghans in Germany, and many more are to come.

Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke on Tuesday at a meeting with Kurz of 10,000 to 40,000 Afghan local staff and relatives who could be accepted by Germany alone.

"We have to know who is coming into the country and that these people do not pose a security risk to the population in Germany," said Seehofer.

"I would like to convey that to Mr. Asselborn."

It will be expensive for the EU

So it was hardly surprising that the Luxembourger was unable to implement his requests for improvement - for example a reference to the declaration of the G7 summit last week, which spoke of "safe and legal ways of resettlement", let alone a specific number of those to be included Refugees.

Asselborn had previously spoken of 40,000 to 50,000 in an interview. Seehofer, on the other hand, did not think it was “wise”: “Numbers trigger a pull effect,” said the CSU politician. “We don't want that.” Instead, everything must be done “that people stay close to their home and thus in their cultural area”. After all, EU Interior Commissioner Ylva Johansson announced that she would convene a new forum in September at which EU countries would talk about resettlement and other help for people at risk in Afghanistan. With this, Asselborn said, one of his most important demands has been met.

According to estimates by the UN refugee agency UNHCR, around 550,000 people have been displaced within Afghanistan since the beginning of the year, around 390,000 since May alone. Nobody knows how many of them want to come to Europe - but there should be many thousands. For the EU's plan to keep them in their home region to work, the states in the region would have to be ready to accept large numbers of people. It is by no means certain whether the governments are ready to help. If they are, one thing seems clear: it will be expensive for the EU.

At least in the end there was relief that the ministers had even come to a joint declaration. Seehofer spoke of the »will to act quickly and, above all, to be in agreement«. EU Interior Commissioner Ylva Johansson also praised the result: "It shows that the member states can agree."