Photo credit: the Guardian
A row erupted in Germany’s Bundestag on Thursday over the new European asylum system CEAS.
EURO News reports that the Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt wants some tougher measures to control illegal migration. According to him, not all burdens should fall on the shoulders of just on state, but they must be equally distributed across Europe.
The Dublin Regulation was meant to ensure a fair distribution. Under its rules, refugees must apply for asylum in the first EU country they enter. However, the system did not always function as intended.
Deadlines have been missed, member state have nit fully cooperated, and migrants bypassed the procedures altogether. The result has been secondary migration and an overburdened system/
While there is a right to an asylum procedure, there is no right to a country of choice for the asylum procedure in Europe, Dobrindt believes He proposed the deportation of migrants who have committed criminal offences too Afghanistan, as well as establishing secondary centres and return hubs in third countries.
Alexander Throm, the CDU/CSU’s domestic spokesperson said, “We are making concrete progress on this.
“There are people who have come to Europe illegally and have no right to protection, no right to stay here. They should ne returned to their home country or, if this is not possible, to another safe third country.”
AfD”s Bernd Baumann said, “It’s a great idea, and it comes from us. We’ve been doing it for years.
“But anyone wh wants to implement this cannot for a coalition with SPD.”
Green Party MP Claudia Roth said, This permanent reduction to criminalization of people on the run is really wrong.”
Left Party MP Clara Bunger said, The new CEAS reform will ensure that hardly any people arriving in the EU, in Germany, will receive protection here. In the future, the vast majority of people will be sent to detention centres and then shipped to third countries that are not safe.
“Every human being has human rights, fundamental rights, and these are being taken away from them. They are being moved, put into some kind of camp, and the procedures are being increasingly undermined, and the right to asylum is unrecognizable; it effectively no longer exists”.
An SPD MP Hakan Demir said, There are many points in the CEAS that point in the right direction.” But he is also concerned ab out potential human rights violations, particularly regarding restrictions on movement in secondary facilities and return centres in third countries.
Although Italy sought to host migrants in asylum centres in Albania, the plan met with legal resistance because the facilities were effectively detention centres. But granting freedom of movement in Albania would have allowed rejected asylum seekers to travel back to the EU thorough Serbia.
The UK’s attempt to deport migrants to Rwanda also failed.
The Duch government recently signed a memorandum of understanding with Uganda to establish a return centre for rejected asylum seekers. Unlike detention facilities, this would serve as an accommodation centre. The pilot project is now moving toward final approval and legal clarification in the coming months.
