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Von der
Leyen promises more deportations as EU veers right on migration
European
leaders are backing deportation centers, sending migrants back to Afghanistan
and Syria, and banning asylum in Poland.
October 18,
2024 3:41 pm CET
By Eddy Wax
BRUSSELS —
Ursula von der Leyen will propose tougher laws and more plans to deport
rejected asylum seekers, doubling down on the European Union’s new embrace of
harsher migration policies as anti-immigrant parties gain popularity across the
Continent.
More than
half of EU member countries, including France and Germany, asked the EU to
toughen up its deportations policy ahead of 27 EU leaders meeting Thursday —
and now the head of the EU’s powerful chief executive is putting her rubber
stamp on deportations.
Von der
Leyen, president of the European Commission, said in a press conference that
leaders had discussed setting up deportation centers outside the EU’s borders,
referring to them as “return hubs.”
The ideas to
increase methods for deportations from the EU come as the actual number of
migrants crossing into the EU are decreasing. In 2023 fewer than 300,000 people
made it to the Continent; this year the EU’s border agency, Frontex, estimates
about 160,000 migrants have reached Europe. In contrast, in 2015 at the height
of Europe’s so-called migration crisis, more than one million people crossed
the EU’s borders.
“Today, we
see that from all those that have no right to stay in the European Union, only
20 percent of those who have a return decision are really returned to their
countries of origin,” she said.
“The idea…
is not trivial but it has been discussed,” she said, referring to the “return
hubs.” It received enthusiastic backing from Greece’s center-right Prime
Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
Polish Prime
Minister Donald Tusk also got backing on his proposed asylum ban for those
coming from Russia and Belarus, after claiming earlier this week Moscow was
shipping migrants to Europe’s border to destabilize Poland. |
To expand
its deportations, the EU could also revise what it considers a legally “safe”
country.
Austria’s
Chancellor Karl Nehammer said Syria — still ruled by dictator Bashar Assad —
and Afghanistan, ruled by the Taliban, should be considered safe countries.
Italy is spearheading a push to send refugees back to Syria, which has had no
formal diplomatic ties with the EU since the start of its bloody civil war in
2011.
At the same
meeting, von der Leyen put the EU stamp on other proposals to keep migrants
out.
Polish Prime
Minister Donald Tusk also got backing on his proposed asylum ban for those
coming from Russia and Belarus, after claiming earlier this week Moscow was
shipping migrants to Europe’s border to destabilize Poland.
Leaders
wholeheartedly endorsed the proposed ban.
“Russia and
Belarus, or any other country, cannot be allowed to abuse our values,” the
agreement signed by all leaders on Thursday. “Exceptional situations require
appropriate measures.”
It’s a stark
departure from the ringing endorsement of immigration Tusk gave to the world
after Donald Trump, who campaigned on an anti-immigrant platform in the U.S.
elections, won in 2016. The
then-European Council president said: “It is good to remember the strength of
the Western community. Italians, Irish, Poles, Germans, Spanish — every EU
nation has helped build America.”
A rare
dissenting voice came from Spain’s Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, who
has cast migration as a boon for his economy.
Asked about
so-called return hubs at a press conference, he said: “We are not in favor of
these kinds of formulations, they don’t solve any problems and create other
ones.”
Along with
Germany, Sánchez wanted more emphasis put on the bloc’s landmark migration and
asylum deal — which was clinched last December.
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