STOCKHOLM: EU interior ministers reached a “consensus” on Thursday to warn outside countries that refuse to take back irregular migrants they risk tougher visa restrictions in Europe, Sweden’s migration minister said. Told.
Ministers agreed that the tool, from 2020 onwards, “should be used to the fullest” to boost the number of migrants returning to their home countries after their asylum applications fail, Maria Malmer Steingaard told reporters. told.
Sweden chaired the Stockholm meeting as it currently holds the presidency of the European Union.
“Should swift political and diplomatic efforts not produce the desired results, member states asked the (European) Commission to come back to the (European) Council with proposals for visa restrictions,” Malmar Steinergaard said.
That hard line was reflected in a letter Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen sent to EU leaders on Thursday ahead of the February 9-10 summit, which will discuss the issue.
Von der Leyen said EU member states could sign off on a pilot scheme in the first half of this year to speed up screening and asylum procedures for eligible migrants – and “immediate return” for those deemed ineligible. “.
She also said she wanted the EU to draw up a list of “safe countries of origin”, and for the bloc to strengthen border surveillance on the Mediterranean and western Balkan routes migrants use to get to Europe.
The EU plans to keep migration deals in place with countries such as Bangladesh, Pakistan, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia and Nigeria “to improve returns … and prevent departures,” von der Leyen said.
In Stockholm, EU Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson stressed that many EU countries were under “enormous pressure”, having received nearly one million asylum applications last year.
He added that the EU’s capacity to host some four million Ukrainian refugees, who fled Russia’s war in their country, was further stretched.
Figures from the European Commission show a low rate of effective return.
In 2021, only 21 percent of the 340,500 orders to return migrants to their countries of origin were followed.
The European Union finances various reintegration programs in countries that re-admit their citizens who have been denied asylum in Europe.
These are distinct from deportation or forced return based on a court or administrative order, which are often carried out under escort and usually do not involve assistance in the country.
Sweden – whose government relies on the far-right party, the Sweden Democrats, to stay in power – wants EU countries to leverage visas, foreign policy and development aid to press outside countries on the issue of returns.
So far, the EU has applied the visa-restriction tool only against one country: The Gambia, for whose citizens it is more difficult and more expensive to obtain a Schengen visa.
In 2021, the commission proposed that the mechanism be extended to Bangladesh and Iraq, but this did not happen.
Johansson said after a November visit to Bangladesh that the threat of visa restrictions had prompted Dhaka to become “politically open” to accepting back irregular migrants from Europe.
The overall tone on migration in Europe has turned harsher since 2015-2016, when it took in over a million asylum seekers fleeing war in their country to Syria.
In 2016 the bloc struck a deal with Turkey to prevent further passage of irregular migrants into Europe.
Austria supports strengthening of the fence on EU member Bulgaria’s border with Turkey to further reduce the flow of asylum seekers.
Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehmer said during a visit to that border area on Monday that the fence would cost around two billion euros, and asked the European Commission to fund it.
The Commission has been reluctant to do so, instead emphasizing the role of Frontex, the bloc’s border patrol agency, which EU member states can call upon.
“It’s about strengthening the fences that are there,” Nehmer told reporters in Vienna on Thursday.
“The commission clearly says, ‘no, there is no money for the fence’. It cannot be the final word on the issue,” he added.
He stressed that the current system of managing asylum and the visa-free Schengen Area has failed.
Johansson said she objected to the fence proposal on financial grounds, pointing out that the European Council, which represents member states, had cut her department’s budget for the 2021-2027 cycle.