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More rejected asylum-seekers should be reaching their own countries, European Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson stressed, as EU capitals push for a tougher approach in the face of surging irregular migration.
“We can do significant progress to increase the numbers of returns, and have it more effective and quicker,” Johansson said ahead of an informal meeting of EU interior ministers in Stockholm.
With three times more asylum applications than irregular arrivals, reception capacities are overloaded, she said. And many applicants are not actually in the need of international protection, according to the Swedish Commissioner.
“That’s why I very much welcome that the Swedish presidency will focus on returns,” she said. “And we do not need to wait for legislation on the pact to do this,” she added, referring to a migration agreement long in the works.
“We need to act as a team Europe” to put pressure on third countries and better digitalize return procedures, she said, echoing recommendations in a recent Commission draft plan.
Pointing the finger at national governments, she also indicated that although the EU’s border control agency Frontex “is very well-equipped to support our returns, only five member states use it.” She cited statistics that EU capitals reach out to countries of origin in only 16 percent of cases.
Today’s meeting is expected to address measures that would ensure each EU member regularly provide Frontex with relevant data on returns by the end of each year, with the objective of establishing a digitized process in all member states as soon as possible.
Earlier this week, the European Commission presented its plan to step up return of migrants to countries outside of the European Union.
EU country migration services requested 342,100 people be removed in 2021, the most recent year with full data available. Only 24 percent of them were returned to a country outside of the bloc in 2021, according to Eurostat.
Rising numbers of arrivals have brought the explosive topic back onto the EU agenda, with some leaders — like Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer — publicly calling for the EU to finance a €2 billion fence along Turkey’s border with Bulgaria, where an increasing number of migrants are crossing into the EU.
Johansson pushed back against pressures from member states such as Austria to use EU funds to build border control infrastructures. On fencing, Commissioner Johansson reiterated the position of Commission President Ursula von der Leyen: “There’s no money in the EU budget for this. So if we spend money on walls and fences, there will be no money for other things.”
In an interview with POLITICO, European People’s Party leader Manfred Weber called on the Commission to explore the possibility of building fences. “The EU Commission must give up its resistance to providing EU funds for this. This has been discussed for a long time … We expect the Commission to move on this,” said the German politician.
Migration is one the key issues on the agenda of the next European Council, slated for Brussels in early February.
Source: Politico
