This year, the European Border Protection Agency (Frontex) expects an increase in the number of immigrants and asylum seekers in the EU. Frontex registered 330,000 irregular entries in 2022, the highest number since 2016.
Some EU states and Great Britain try to toughen their laws or the asylum procedure to prevent and deter migrants.
How does Germany react?
In Germany, cities and municipalities complain about the overload of tasks, accommodation and integration. Around a quarter of all asylum applications in the EU are made in Germany, even though it is not the country of first entry. The central and regional governments agreed to toughen regulations for deportations and pre-deportation custody for migrants forced to leave the country. German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser has so far refused to extend border controls to make irregular entries more difficult.
Asylum procedure center in Rwanda?
Other countries targeted by migrants, such as France, Austria, the Netherlands and Great Britain, are trying to deter them with various measures. The United Kingdom, for example, threatens to outsource asylum procedures by moving them to Rwanda, or to intern migrants on boats. In Denmark, procedures are becoming more restrictive, and there only 180 people apply for asylum every month. In Austria between 4,000 and 11,000 applications were registered per month in 2022.
Dangerous sea lanes remain
The countries to which immigrants arrive first – Italy, Greece, Malta, Cyprus, Croatia, and recently, also Poland – try to make their access as difficult as possible. Migrants then only have the dangerous sea routes, or entry by plane with real or fake visas. The “protection of the EU’s external borders” is decided by the EU’s interior ministers. Italy also tries to make it as difficult as possible to disembark shipwrecked people in private rescue ships.
According to the New York Times and humanitarian organizations, the border authorities of Greece, Croatia and Poland use the pushback method to send migrants back to the country they came from, without a regulatory procedure.
Why does Hungary have hardly any asylum seekers?
In Hungary, undocumented migrants can be deported without any procedure, under a 2015 “Emergency Law.” European courts have declared the practice illegal. The Budapest government ignores the verdicts. Only 44 people applied for asylum in Hungary in 2022.
According to the “European Council for Refugees” (ECRE), 150,000 people were returned to Serbia without much ado.
Why does Italy want an agreement with Tunisia?
Most of the 60,000 people who crossed the sea in the first seven months of 2023 arrived with tugboats. The Italian government wants Tunisia to prevent migrants from boarding such boats. In 2023 the number of people wanting to come to Italy has multiplied by ten.
The route through Libya is becoming less attractive because of the restrictive coast guard. The EU has signed an agreement with Libya to prevent migration. By the way, only a few thousand apply for asylum each month in Italy.
Poland wants to avoid migration according to EU guidelines
The ruling national conservative party PiS wants to prevent immigration and “protect” Poland, even though the number of asylum seekers in that country is very small. According to Eurostat, the EU statistical authority, 2,785 people applied for asylum there in the first half of 2023, a country with 38 million inhabitants.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki opposes EU attempts to reform common asylum law. In addition, a fence with Belarus is being erected on the eastern border. Morawiecki wants to hold a referendum to eradicate migration according to EU guidelines.
Repealing the right to asylum as a deterrent tactic?
The head of the conservative German parliamentary group (CDU/CSU), Thorsten Frei, is committed to an immigration quota, because he considers that the current system is unfair, since only rich people or strong young men would survive the dangers of immigration. complicated entry into the EU. The elderly, the sick, women and children have little chance of crossing the Sahara or getting on the boats.
