BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Germany and France want the European Union to weaken its human rights safeguards to allow for deportation of asylum seekers before their case is considered, according to their joint proposal on curbing immigration, seen by Reuters on Tuesday.
This option would only kick in at times of a “mass influx” of people to the bloc and comes as the EU is persistently making it harder for migrants and refugees alike to get in and be allowed to stay.
While the EU says it has the right to send away all economic migrants if it chooses so, its existing laws on human rights and asylum say a third country must met certain conditions if the bloc were to send there someone who claims asylum in Europe, and have the person wait for a decision there.
Returning asylum seekers was a key element of a year-old EU-Turkey agreement, which Paris and Berlin hailed in their joint document as a “game changer” as it cut drastically the number of people – mostly Syrian refugees – making it to Europe.
But few other EU neighbours could be seen as meeting the criteria, which include safety from persecution, humane reception conditions, and at least partial access to medical care, education and labour market.
So Germany and France have proposed to dilute them, saying in the paper that the EU’s asylum system for “must be designed in a flexible way, and it must be capable of coping with any eventuality.”
“This is not about building a ‘fortress Europe’. It is about combating illegal immigration, which has already cost the lives of thousands, and about replacing it by a regulated system of legal admissions, combined with humane living conditions, assured by the EU in third countries.”
The two said the Turkish deal – which has been criticised by rights groups as cutting corners on human rights and for bumpy implementation that put people’s lives at risk – should serve as a blueprint for the future. Continued…
