STOCKHOLM (January 26) (Reuters) – European Union ministers on Thursday sought ways to reduce irregular migration and turn away more people as arrivals rose from the lowest levels of the pandemic, reviving controversial ideas about border walls and asylum centers outside Europe. .
European border agency Frontex reported about 330,000 unauthorized arrivals last year, the highest level since 2016, with a sharp increase on the Western Balkans route.
“We have a massive increase in the number of illegal immigrants,” Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson told talks between the EU’s 27 immigration ministers. “We have a very low rate of return and I can see we can make a lot of progress here.”
Denmark, the Netherlands and Latvia were among those calling for more pressure through visas and development aid towards the nearly 20 countries – including Iraq and Senegal – which the EU says are not cooperating to take back their citizens who do not have the right to remain in Europe. .
Only about a fifth of those people have been repatriated in the past year, with insufficient resources and coordination on the part of the EU as another hurdle, according to the bloc’s executive director.
The ministerial talks come ahead of a February 9-10 summit of European Union leaders – the bloc’s highest political body – who are also set to push for more returns, according to a draft of their joint statement seen by Reuters.
Walls and fences
Immigration is a highly politically sensitive topic in the bloc, with member states deeply divided over how to share the task of caring for those who win asylum in Europe.
The topic has become toxic since more than a million people crossed the Mediterranean in 2015 in chaotic and deadly scenes that caught the bloc by surprise, overwhelmed its reception and security capabilities, and stoked anti-immigration sentiment.
With people on the move again after the global COVID pandemic, debate has returned to the fore, and some proposals in the past have been rejected as unacceptable.
Denmark is in talks with Rwanda to deal with asylum seekers in East Africa, while others in the European Union have sought funds to build a border fence between EU member Bulgaria and Turkey – both ideas hitherto considered taboo.
“We are still working to achieve this, preferably with other European countries, but as a last resort, we will only do it with cooperation between Denmark and, for example, Rwanda,” Immigration Minister Kar Dipvad said on Thursday.
Dutch Minister Eric van der Burgh said he was open to EU funding for border barriers.
Johansson sought to shoot down the idea, saying, “If we spend money on walls and fences, there will be no money for other things.”
While some EU countries protest irregular migration from the Middle East and North Africa, which often includes people who are Muslims, Germany seeks to open up the labor market to much-needed workers from outside the bloc.
“We want to conclude immigration agreements with countries, especially with North African countries, that would allow a legal path to Germany, but would also include effective returns,” Interior Minister Nancy Weser said in Stockholm.
Editing by Bernadette Baum
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