STOCKHOLM, Jan 26 (Portal) – European Union migration ministers meet on Thursday to discuss visa restrictions and better coordination within the bloc to be able to send more people without the right to seek asylum in Europe back to their home countries, including Iraq.
Three years after the EU-27 nations agreed to restrict visas for countries believed not to be cooperating in repatriating their people, only The Gambia has been officially penalized.
The EU’s executive commission proposed similar moves towards Iraq, Senegal and Bangladesh, although two EU officials said cooperation with Dhaka on returning people has since improved.
Nevertheless, the overall rate of effective returns in the EU in 2021 was 21% according to Eurostat data, the latest available.
“This is a level that member states consider unacceptably low,” said one of the EU officials.
Immigration is a politically highly sensitive issue in the bloc, where member countries would much rather discuss increasing returns and reduce irregular immigration in the first place than rekindle their bitter feuds over how to share the task of caring for those who earn money make it to Europe and get the right to stay.
“Establishing an effective and common EU system for returns is a key pillar of well-functioning and credible migration and asylum systems,” the commission said in a discussion paper for ministers, seen by Portal.
Around 160,000 people made it across the Mediterranean in 2022, which the UN says is the main route to Europe for people fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East, Africa and Southeast Asia. In addition, almost 8 million Ukrainian refugees have been registered across Europe.
Ministers are meeting two weeks before the EU’s 27 national leaders meet in Brussels to discuss migration and are also expected to call for more people to be turned away.
“Swift action is required to ensure effective returns from the European Union to countries of origin, leveraging all relevant EU policies,” read a draft of their joint statement, also seen by Portal.
However, within the EU, there is a lack of resources and coordination between the different government bodies to ensure that every person without a right to stay is effectively returned or deported, the commission said.
“Inadequate cooperation between countries of origin is an additional challenge,” she added, citing problems including the recognition and issuance of identity and travel documents.
But pressure from migration chiefs to punish some third countries with visa restrictions has run afoul of the EU’s own foreign and development ministers in the past, or stalled due to conflicting agendas from different EU countries.
Therefore, there has not yet been a sufficient majority among EU countries to punish any country other than Gambia, where people can no longer get multiple entry visas in the bloc and have to wait longer.
While EU countries, including Austria and Hungary, have been vocal in their protests against predominantly Muslim irregular immigration from the Middle East and North Africa, Germany is among those trying to open up its labor market to much-needed workers from outside the bloc.
Reporting by Gabriela Baczynska; additional reporting by Philip Blenkinsop; Editing by Jonathan Oatis
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