Don’t
want migrants? Pay for them instead
Planned
relocation scheme would have financial penalties for those who don’t
join in.
By FLORIAN EDER
5/3/16, 10:27 PM CET
The European
Commission will on Wednesday propose a mandatory relocation system
for asylum seekers, and will make it expensive for those EU countries
that refuse to take part, according to an internal Commission
document seen by POLITICO.
It’s part of a
planned shake-up of the bloc’s asylum rules that aims to ease the
pressure on the EU countries at the bloc’s external borders. If the
proposal becomes law, the EU country in which migrants first set foot
would in principle have to process their asylum claims, but that
country would no longer be obliged to host all of the migrants it
receives.
The Commission
document highlights the shortcomings of the current system, including
that “asylum seekers often refuse to make asylum applications [in
the] member state of first arrival, and they then move on, in an
illegal way.”
The EU plans to stop
that happening by giving each country a threshold of asylum seekers.
If the actual number of arrivals reaches 150 percent of the country’s
set figure, “an automatic corrective allocation mechanism…is
triggered” and all further new applicants would be relocated, the
document says, until the number of asylum seekers is back below the
threshold.
The problem for the
Commission is that some EU countries refuse to take part in any
relocation scheme. Hungary has announced a referendum on the issue
and Slovakia is going to court over a similar, one-off relocation
scheme agreed upon last September.
The Commission’s
answer: You don’t want to take in refugees? Pay for them instead.
Governments will be
allowed to opt out of the scheme, if they’re willing to pay the
country that takes care of its migrants.
“Member states
would be able to choose a different kind of solidarity by
contributing financially to the efforts made by other member states,
those confronted with the disproportionate situation or those
relocating asylum seekers,” the document says.
We’re talking
serious amounts of money. “The proposal is meant to contain a
financial sanction mechanism,” an EU source familiar with the
matter told POLITICO.
Questions remain
about the commitment of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s government to human
rights.
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Commission spokesman
Margaritis Schinas on Tuesday refused to comment on a report in the
Financial Times that said the fine would be €250,000 per asylum
seeker.
The financial
penalty is expected to be high, however. The EU source said the fine
“should go beyond symbolism and be understood as prohibitive
pricing.”
Greece and Italy
would profit most from the relocation plan, although an EU official
warned that the likes of Poland, Latvia or Finland should be worried
about the impact of waves of migration in the future.
Countries without
external borders would have to acknowledge the reality that asylum
seekers don’t care about the Dublin rules that dictate which member
country has to deal with asylum claims.
The Commission will
on Wednesday also propose stricter rules for asylum seekers
themselves. So-called asylum shopping would no longer be allowed. To
stop it, the Commission will oblige migrants to stay in the country
processing their asylum claim, with sanctions for those who don’t
comply.
It will also
recommend visa-free travel for Turkish citizens in the EU, part of
its deal with Ankara on stopping the flow of migrants into Europe.
The Commission will make a “qualified” recommendation for visa
liberalization, officials said.
That means the
Commission’s endorsement is contingent on Ankara’s fulfillment of
the entire catalog of 72 “benchmarks” required of applicant
countries. Turkey has met most, though not all, of the criteria, a
list that includes everything from introducing biometric passports to
ensuring rights of minorities.
The final decision
on whether to grant Turks visa-free travel, expected at the end of
June, rests with member-country leaders.
Authors:
Florian Eder
.webp)
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