The repatriation rate in the EU has been low for years at under 30 percent. According to the EU Commission, 29 percent of those people who should have left the EU states left the country in 2019. In 2021 the rate was only 21 percent. According to dpa, the Brussels authorities had announced a target of around 70 percent in 2018.
The EU has long been trying to increase the repatriation rate. In April 2021, for example, the EU Commission presented a strategy that focused primarily on voluntary returnees. With its visa policy, the EU also wants to put pressure on countries that are not willing to take back rejected asylum seekers.
The European Court of Auditors found last year that the EU does not work “efficiently enough” with third countries. The auditors described the creation of incentives for third countries to implement their readmission obligations as insufficient. However, EU circles recently said that many third countries would not meet their international obligations.
Repatriations as “joint responsibility”
“Those who are not entitled to stay in the European Union must be sent back to their country of origin,” said EU Interior Commissioner Ylva Johansson in Brussels on Tuesday. Together with the responsible EU representative Mari Juritsch, she presented a strategy to ensure more returns.
Johansson and Juritsch did not want to commit to a new goal. This can only happen in consultation with the EU states. In order to increase the number of returns, the authority is now primarily relying on closer cooperation between the member states and EU authorities such as Frontex.
“Repatriations are a shared responsibility,” said Juritsch. Especially in third countries where there are no major political hurdles or problems with fundamental rights, more people would have to be sent back. In order to protect the credibility of the asylum system and to prevent unwanted border crossings, more speed is needed. She demanded that there should be advisers in every EU country to ensure more voluntary returnees.
Karner for “Asylum Brake”
“We have put the asylum brake on in Austria, now we also need measures in Europe to combat asylum abuse,” said Interior Minister Karner in the run-up to the meeting, according to the announcement. He called on the EU Commission to “pay attention to the protection of the external borders, to finance technical improvements and to make legal adjustments”.
According to the EU Commission, almost 924,000 asylum applications (first and subsequent applications) were filed in the EU in 2022, an increase of 46.5 percent compared to 2021. Most asylum applicants therefore came from Syria, Afghanistan and Turkey. In 2021, the EU recorded a total of around 630,000 applications.
“Rejection policy” required
In addition, Karner called in advance for a pilot project for asylum procedures in an EU country at the EU’s external border, a “rejection directive” that would no longer require individual checks, asylum procedures in safe third countries, easier withdrawal of protection status according to the procedure directive, even for non-serious cases Criminal offenses and more support from EU states for Frontex at the EU’s external border and in third countries.
In his view, the “refoulement directive” proposed by him should “help to turn away all those who come to Europe illegally for economic reasons already at the external border”. With a refusal policy, case-by-case assessments would no longer be required. With such a directive, rejections would be made possible without an asylum application being examined in cases in which there was no prospect of asylum anyway, according to the argumentation of the ÖVP government leadership in the federal government.
Denmark: No asylum center in Rwanda for the time being
Meanwhile, Denmark announced on Wednesday that it would temporarily suspend its controversial project to send asylum seekers to Rwanda. Instead, they want to work for an EU-wide solution. The negotiations on setting up a Danish reception center in Rwanda, which have already begun, will not be continued for the time being, said the new immigration minister, Kaare Dybvad, in the Altinget newspaper on Wednesday.
In order to reduce the number of migrants traveling through Europe, the Netherlands is also calling on countries such as Italy and Greece to better register those seeking protection at the EU’s external borders. The Dublin rules, according to which the EU state responsible for an asylum application is usually the one on whose soil the person seeking protection first set foot on European soil, should be enforced quickly, according to a position paper available to the dpa.
Also Ukraine war theme
In Stockholm, Karner will meet Danish Migration Minister and Migration Minister Eric van der Burg from the Netherlands, among others, EU Interior Commissioner Johannson, Swedish Migration Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard and Swiss Federal Councilor (Minister) Elisabeth Baume-Schneider for multilateral talks.
The fight against organized crime and the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine are also on the agenda of the EU interior ministers. The EU justice ministers, including department head Alma Zadic (Greens), will also discuss these two issues on Friday.
Common asylum policy has been a contentious issue for years
The EU member states have been arguing about a common migration policy for years. Attempts to reform Europe’s asylum system have repeatedly failed. Brussels’ failure to better apply Article 25a – which allows EU visa benefits to be suspended for countries that fail to take back ineligible migrants – underscores the frustration of countries that believe the answer to illegal migration lies not in new ideas, but in one better implementation of existing ideas, according to the “Financial Times” (“FT”).
In view of the increasing migration figures and the pressure from some EU states such as Austria, the Swedish EU Council Presidency is now moving the issue back into focus and, according to its own statements, is aiming for progress in the common asylum and migration policy in the coming months.
The focus should initially be on relations with third countries – i.e. countries of origin and transit. “I am very optimistic that we can do some sensible groundwork,” said Swedish EU ambassador Lars Danielsson in Brussels. According to the Swedish ambassador Annika Markovic, Austria is on the same page with Austria on migration issues. A special EU summit will be held in Brussels on February 9th and 10th. An agreement on the asylum and migration pact should be reached before the 2024 European elections, i.e. by spring under the Belgian EU Council Presidency at the latest.
