EU seeks to speed up deportations
UK: Need to crack down on people abusing asylum Austria says migrant ‘ hotspots’ are far from ready Turkey wary of migrant plan offer
EU ministers pushed on Thursday to speed up the deportation of failed asylum seekers in a bid to curb Europe’s migration crisis, ahead of key talks with officials from the Balkans and nations bordering Syria.
In a sign of a tougher approach to the worst migration crisis since World War II, European interior ministers want a dedicated programme to send back “economic” migrants who are largely from African nations.
The European Union’s focus in recent months has been more on genuine refugees fleeing conflict in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan as it grapples with a wave of more than 600,000 illegal entrants to the bloc.
“We need to crack down on people abusing our asylum system,” British home secretary Theresa May said as she arrived at the talks in Luxembourg.
The meeting comes a day after German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande both called for an overhaul of the EU’s asylum system, as they made a rare joint speech to the European Parliament.
Ms Merkel said the current Dublin regulations — which put the burden on Mediterranean states like Greece and Italy
Ministers from the 28 EU nations are debating draft proposals to increase the ability of member states to speed up returns of failed asylum seekers
by saying asylum applications must be handled by the first state in which a migrant lands — were “obsolete”.
However Austrian Chancellor Werner Fayman said planned EU “hotspots” on Europe's outer borders to better deal with the influx of thousands of migrants are far from ready, after he visited one such site in Greece. “In terms of timing and organisation, nothing has been thought through,” Werner Faymann told Austrian public radio in an interview. “A lot more has to happen... There are gaps everywhere.”
On Thursday, the ministers from the 28 EU nations are debating draft proposals to increase the ability of member states to speed up both voluntary and forced returns of failed asylum seekers in cooperation with their countries of origin.
“The EU and its member states must do more in terms of return,” according to the draft conclusions seen by AFP. “Increased return rates should act as a deterrent to irregular migration.” Ankara, Oct. 8: Turkey is giving a EU plan to assist the country in hosting over two million Syrian refugees only a lukewarm reception, indicating funding needs to be drastically increased and lamenting shortfalls in help over previous years.
The EU hopes that helping refugees inside Turkey will discourage Syrians from taking perilous sea and land routes to seek new lives within the bloc after an unprecedented influx in September. But the EU is also proposing to formally resettle more refugees on EU territory, if Ankara establishes new camps and boosts its Coast Guard to slow the flow of people to Europe.
European Commission chief Jean- Claude Juncker presented the “draft action plan” to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during talks on Monday.
Brussels has also renewed promises to mobilise up to one billion euros ($ 1.1 billion) to help Turkey cope with its refugees.
But Turkish officials are not yet to embracing the plan. “The EU is in a hurry but we are not,” a Turkish official, who asked not to be named, said. “We’ve already been doing for four years what’s written there,” he added.