The European Union is reportedly considering significant changes to its rules on asylum seekers and illegal immigration amid growing recognition that Brussels’ open borders philosophy has failed.
According to The Times of London, the EU is looking to overhaul the United Nations 1951 Refugee Convention, which is enshrined into EU law. Among other provisions, the convention prohibits member states from deporting failed asylum seekers, including illegal migrants and criminals, back to their native countries if their safety or freedom could be endangered by doing so.
An EU diplomatic document calling for reform to the system seen by The Times said: “It should be noted that these principles were developed after the end of the Second World War, and were characterised by a very different geopolitical situation to that of today.”
The document, drafted by Poland and discussed by EU ministers last week, continued: “Recently there has been an adverse development. Member state societies’ ability to host large numbers of migrants is increasingly being put to the test, especially in situations where some migrants do not seek to integrate into the host society but instead to form separate communities in which norms and rules that deviate from European values may be cultivated.
“The question of how to deal with the return of third-country nationals posing a security threat or who have a criminal background needs to be considered… In particular, criminal behaviour of foreigners entitled to permanent residence is a problem.”
The issue has recently come to the fore in the ongoing legal battle between the Luxembourg-based European Court of Justice (ECJ) and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s conservative government in Rome, which has established a deal with the non-EU nation of Albania to hold illegal migrants in detention centres rather than allowing them to stay in Italy while their asylum claims are processed.
While other EU nations and leadership in Brussels have expressed interest in the Meloni model, judges in Rome, citing ECJ precedent, have ordered the return of illegals back from Albania, claiming that alleged asylum seekers from countries like Egypt and Bangladesh cannot be deported as areas of their homelands are not considered safe.
Italian Justice Minister Carlo Nordio has argued that the classification of unsafe countries is too broad, noting that one of the qualifications, having the death penalty, would mean that even the United States would not be considered a safe country to deport migrants back to.
The issue of EU migration law has also been a central topic of the upcoming federal elections in Germany, following a string of terror attacks committed by asylum seekers and migrants in the country over the past year.
Last week, the leader of the formerly Angela Merkel-led Christian Democratic Union (CDU) — which oversaw the opening of the gates to mass migration from Africa and the Middle East that sparked the 2015 European Migrant Crisis — Friedrich Merz called on the Bundestag parliament to implement strict border controls to prevent any illegal from entering the country, as well as increased deportations to countries like Afghanistan and Syria, regardless of whether they are deemed safe for returns or not.
In what may become a significant development in German politics, Merz and the CDU joined forces with the anti-mass migration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party to pass a non-binding resolution calling for the migration measures, breaking the so-called “firewall” preventing establishment parties from working with the populist party.
Opponents, such as the Social Democrats of current Chancellor Olaf Scholz, have claimed that Merz’s proposals would violate EU laws on migration. Merz has argued that national governments should be able to step in when EU laws fail to protect their nations.
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