BRUSSELS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 24th September, 2020) The EU's new migration pact can be seen as a decisive attempt to deal with the aftermath of the 2015 migrant crisis by promoting a more orderly approach to handling migration, but simultaneously raises discussions about whether it focuses on the core problem behind the European migration impasse or just disguises the issue with imposing so-called greater solidarity between member states.
The long-awaited pact was made public earlier in the day. The presentation was initially scheduled for September 30, but the recent blaze that destroyed the largest camp on the Greek island of Lesbos, which hosted nearly 13,000 migrants, added urgency to the policy announcement.
On Tuesday, one day before the plan revelation, EU Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson said that the main idea lying the center of the new policy was to find a balance between the interests of migrants, refugees and European states.
"This is a difficult task, of course, and I do not expect to have many hurrahs when I present my proposal! I hope to have acceptance and respect because I think we are finding the right balance where we can show solidarity towards the migrants, asylum seekers, and between the European member states. We are also clear that those who are not eligible to stay, have to be returned," Johansson stated.
Migration is the lingering problem that haunts the European Union since 2015 when 1.5 million migrants simultaneously flooded Europe, and Germany in particular, where Chancellor Angela Merkel had unpreparedly announced that they would be welcome.
The European Commission has been looking for solutions much before the wave of 2015 to ease the burden on the first-line member states, including Greece, Italy, Spain and also Hungary, Slovenia and Austria, which are close to the Balkans - those who have to accommodate the masses of arrivals from the middle East and sub-Saharan Africa.
Merkel, overwhelmed by the emerged problem, instigated the European deal in 2016, under which Turkey agreed to hold back the migrants on Turkish soil in return for cash payments to the level of 6 billion Euros ($7 billion). However, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan soon said that this was not enough and threatened Europe with the re-opening of the floodgates that had submerged Greece, where there are migrant camps on most of the islands of the Aegean Sea close to the Turkish coast.
As the EU was completely paralyzed by migrant quotas that the European Commission wanted to impose on each member state, and member states were also paralyzed by the mounting opposition to this among their own citizens, individual member states took the defense of their borders in their own hands. Austria and Slovenia worked with other Balkan countries, such as North Macedonia, to stop the Balkan route followed by the illegal migrants leaving Greece to reach Germany and northern Europe.
Hungary tightly closed its eastern border with a fence and refused to accept any migrants. Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia followed suit.
Until now, the EU countries of migrants' first entry - primarily Greece and Italy - bore the bulk of the burden. The new policy seems to envisage a different attempt to mandatory sharing of the migrant burden, sweetened by cash payments for every migrant member states accept.
The new pact will be mandatory for all member states, but these member states will have a completely new choice: either to accept migrants considered as refugees to be relocated in their country, or to pay and provide logistics to repatriate those who are denied entry to Europe.
The commission intends to organize the selection process, as migrants arrive or disembark. The process will only take a few days and migrants would then either enter the asylum procedure (that could still mean a refusal in the end) or they will immediately be considered as illegal economic migrants and repatriated to the country where they come from.
According to Johansson, two-thirds of the migrants arriving in Europe have no right to stay. The main goal of the pact is to increase the very small contingent of returnees by 70 percent.
To sweeten this so-called mandatory solidarity mechanism and entice member states to accept refugees, countries would receive 10,000 euros for an adult and 12,000 euros for each unaccompanied minor. Member states refusing the choice proposed by the pact would face court proceedings and fines.
Countries such as Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic or Slovakia that have strictly refused to accept migrants, would have a solution without losing face - they would contribute to the return of these failed asylum claimants.
The new pact was accelerated by Germany, as Merkel felt obliged to take in some 1,500 migrants from the Moria camp in the Greek island of Lesbos, where some 12,700 migrants and refugees were left homeless after the blaze.
UNACCOMPANIED MINORS REMAIN MAJOR ISSUE
According to sources, from 40 to 60 percent of the unaccompanied minors arriving in Europe are actually above 18. There have been a lot of discussions in Germany and in France on the best way to identify those who are entitled to the status of minor, which means a total and unlimited coverage for health, housing and education, plus the right for family reunification, envisaging arrivals of parents, brothers and sisters.
The number of unaccompanied foreign minors is exploding in Europe. France, for example, has welcomed nearly 40,000 unaccompanied minors in 2020 alone. In 2014, there were about� 4,000 to be supported by child welfare.
"We have already received around 100 unaccompanied minors per day on average since January 1. Out of this flow of 40,000 unaccompanied foreign minors, around half will have been able, by the end of the year, to integrate the aid mechanisms borne by the departments, the others being considered as adults. Those who will be recognized as being under 18 (by means of a bone test, if necessary) will therefore be around 20,000. They will add to the "stock" of the 40,000 minors already taken into account by child welfare in previous years," an executive from the Assembly of French Departments (ADF) told Le Figaro newspaper last week.
France has a major problem with these youngsters, living on the streets of large cities such as Bordeaux, forming gangs, selling drugs and living off theft and other misdemeanors.
"Checking the age of allegedly underage migrants is necessary. According to scientific studies, around 40 percent of alleged minors lie about their age. The German Federal government must be more vigilant since taking in a single supposedly underage migrant alone costs taxpayers at least 50,000 euros per year. Such a waste of taxpayers' money is irresponsible," Dr. Axel Gehrke, an Alternative for Germany (AfD) member of Bundestag, told Sputnik.
The measures announced on Wednesday outline a more formal process for sharing migrants and refugees who arrive in the European Union. The European Border and Coast Guard Agency, also known as Frontex, should also be supported to better defend the external borders of the bloc, working with the first-line member states.
Faster processing of new arrivals has been proposed, but the current rule linking asylum to the country of first entry, such as Greece, is unlikely to change. Speedier returns for migrants whose asylum claims have been rejected are also planned, with greater financial help from the EU to non-EU countries hit by migration.
The European Commission wants to use trade benefits, visas and development funds as a means of pressure on African and Middle Eastern countries to take back their economic migrants, which will now clearly be refused.
Moreover, the commission is abandoning binding European asylum quotas for the EU countries, which have been the point of contention between the member states in recent years.
The new policy has been the subject of intensive consultations with all EU countries in recent months. The migration proposals of the previous commission were bogged down by profound divisions between the southern member states that want other countries to take over some of the migrants, the eastern member states, which do not want to accept almost anyone, and the western states, receiving many undocumented migrants through other EU countries. The 2016 proposals for the mandatory relocation of migrants led to an impasse resulted in overcrowded reception camps.
To end these five years of chaos and misery, the new pact could work out if the national authorities can organize the initial selection - within five days - at the European external borders, including ports and airports. The identity of the migrant must be established, as well as whether he or she poses a threat to security or public health. During this screening, the authorities check whether someone has virtually no chance for asylum could be eligible. In the latter case, a migrant continues with the existing asylum procedure in the country of arrival.
In Germany, the reaction of the AfD, the main opposition party, was immediate. The chairman of the AfD parliamentary group in the German Bundestag, Alexander Gauland, criticized the plan, saying that it ignored the core of the EU migration crisis and failed to deal with illegal migration.
"[European] Commission President [Ursula] von der Leyen has presented a half-baked hodgepodge of unsuitable proposals and political slacks that ignore the core of the problem and therefore cannot work. It is up to the national policy of the individual member states whether, which and how many migrants they are willing to accept.� A European migration policy only makes sense if it focuses on preventing illegal migration, closing and strictly controlling external borders, and collaborative efforts to return illegal immigrants," Gauland said in a statement.
Tom Vandendriessche, a Belgian member of the European Parliament, in turn, expressed doubts regarding the effectiveness of the initial screening of migrants at the EU external border.
"There are indeed interesting elements in the pact presented by Johansson, mainly the fact that member states can choose how they choose to show their solidarity by supporting massive repatriations of economic migrants. It remains to be seen though if the selection to be done in the ports of entry will be as efficient as the EU claims it will be. We have great doubts," Vandendriessche told Sputnik.
According to the lawmaker, Brussels has been failing to properly address the migration crisis and is trying to "make illegal migration legal" without taking substantial steps to eradicate the cause of the problem.
"The commissioners pretend that the migration crisis has come to an end. Not at all! Their leadership has been disastrous for decades. We believe in Vlaams Belang [Belgium's second-largest opposition party] that Africa must be helped in Africa, with more efforts in development, cooperation and trade. The root cause of the massive arrivals of African migrants is the demography. The European Commission ignores it and simply wants to make illegal migration legal.�Solidarity can be best demonstrated by helping Greece to close its borders, as Denmark has done by sending border guard units there," he added.
Jerome Riviere, a European Parliament member from France's right-wing National Rally party, also called for a tougher migration policy for Europe.
"All that the European Commission wants is to continue to keep the floodgates of migration open, but not anymore with 'ad hoc solutions,' rather in an orderly way. My group denounces the migratory submersion that Europe is going through against the will of its citizens. Despite some good points, the pact proposed is still far off the mark. Europe must be much tougher in the interest of all, including the countries of origin of these migrants, that must receive an increased help from Europe," Riviere said.
The lawmaker noted that the system of sanctions and fines for refusing to accept illegal migrants or fund their repatriation was "unacceptable," suggesting that the best way for Europe to deal with the crisis is to totally stop illegal migration to the bloc.
"If countries do not choose to pay for repatriation or to welcome illegal migrants, they will face heavy fines, says the commissioner. This is unacceptable. We need to adopt the Australian approach of this massive illegal migration - a total stop that will finally discourage the human traffickers and their allies in the NGOs, 'saving' migrants at sea. This option is not even considered by the EU. To my knowledge, Australia is a democracy..." Riviere concluded.
