Politics

EU members reach agreement on how to deal with asylum seekers during crises

Brussels, Oct 4 (EFE).- European Union member states reached a historic agreement on Wednesday on migration reform that will allow so-called “frontline” countries to accelerate asylum applications and relocate migrants to other EU members in the event of war, natural disasters or climate emergency.

The agreement on Crisis Regulation is the final part of the New Pact on Migration and Asylum that members were looking to conclude before entering the last stage of negotiations on migration reform.

The new law establishes a framework that will allow member states to address crisis situations by adjusting certain rules, for example in the registration of asylum applications or the asylum procedure at the EU’s external borders.

Countries affected by the arrival of huge numbers of migrants or other crisis situations will be able to request solidarity and support measures from the EU and its member states and apply specific rules concerning asylum and return procedures.

Spain, which holds the rotating six-month presidency of the EU Council, included the issue in a meeting of the permanent ambassadors of the EU where the agreement was reached.

Last week the Council of European interior ministers came close to sealing an agreement, but Italy, one of the EU members most affected by irregular migration flows, asked for more time to examine the proposal in detail.

Now that both the Council and the European Parliament have fixed their positions on all the rules that make up the migration package, the two institutions can negotiate with each other to finalize the reform.

‘Today we have achieved a huge step forward on a critical issue for the future of the EU,” said the acting Spanish Minister of Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska.

“With today’s agreement we are now in a better position to reach an agreement on the entire asylum and migration pact with the European Parliament by the end of this semester.”

European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, hailed the agreement between the EU-27 as “a real game changer”.

President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, said that the deal “is an important step that breaks a deadlock on one of the greatest challenges of our generation.”

Amnesty International, however, was more cautious in its reaction, which said in a statement that the agreement “risks leaving people stranded, detained or destitute along Europe’s borders” and that it “will do nothing to improve the protection of asylum seekers in the EU.”

AI’s head of European Institutions Office and Director of Advocacy Eve Geddie said it is “vital that the rush to reach an agreement does not lead to human rights being side-lined in the process” and hoped that asylum seekers’ fundamental rights would be “guaranteed as negotiations advance in the coming months.” EFE

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