EU Seeks Greater Coordination in Asylum Seeker Deportations
Dimitris Avramopoulos, EU Commissioner for Migration, has called for a uniform policy among EU member states for the deportation of asylum seekers. Member states will be required to cooperate with one another in the deportation of asylum seekers.
The European Commission has called for a unified policy among its members regarding the deportation of asylum seekers from EU countries. Dimitris Avramopoulos, EU Commissioner for Migration, stated that asylum seeker deportation is one of the most controversial topics related to migration.
The EU Commissioner for Migration further described asylum seeker deportation as one of the most important pillars of the European Union’s migration policy. The European Commission reported that the exact number of asylum seekers returned was 45.8 percent in 2016 and 36.6 percent in the previous year (2017).
These figures come at a time when different EU member states handle and enforce deportations of asylum seekers whose refugee applications have been rejected in vastly different ways. The European Union is now seeking to standardize asylum deportation laws.
The European Union has prepared proposals in this regard. For example, member states must hold asylum seekers in detention for at least three months before deportation to allow sufficient time for the necessary administrative and legal procedures for their deportation.
Member states are also obligated to cooperate with one another in the deportation of asylum seekers. In this way, these countries obtain the necessary information about each deported asylum seeker so that they are aware of the person’s identity and the reasons for their deportation.
Preventing “Dangerous Journeys” of Asylum Seekers
The European Commission also believes that there should be a simple and unified procedure for deporting asylum seekers who apply for asylum at EU borders and whose asylum applications are rejected there.
The European Commission has stated that the objective of these new regulations is to send signals from the European Union so that asylum seekers, before undertaking dangerous journeys to EU countries, know that coordinated deportation laws exist there.
Currently, asylum seeker deportations from EU countries are delayed because the transmission of asylum seekers’ identity documents from their countries is carried out with considerable delays.
The European Commission wants to prevent asylum seekers from disappearing into society as a way to avoid deportation in case of delays in the transmission of their identity documents, leading them to underground living conditions in these countries and moving from one country to another.
Strengthening EU Land and Maritime Borders
The European Commission also plans to strengthen the forces stationed at EU borders and the office dealing with asylum matters. The number of forces stationed at EU borders is set to increase to 10,000 by 2020.
It has been decided that the rapid processing of asylum seeker cases, as determined at the EU leaders’ summit in June, will be conducted at centers outside EU borders where it will be determined which migrants have the necessary grounds for asylum and which migrants do not have these grounds.
Source: DW
