By Chris Muhizi MCN Wednesday June 7/2023.
Home affairs ministers from the 27 member states will meet urgently on Thursday in Luxembourg to consider two important proposals, including one for relocating more than 100,000 migrants annually.
Under extreme plans intended to relieve pressure on frontline nations like Italy and Greece, EU countries that refuse to accept migrants or asylum seekers might be penalised up to €20,000 (£17,000) per person.
things will be touch-and-go on Thursday, according to one diplomat, who claimed they had adopted a “tortoise method to do it slowly, slowly” in an effort to get member states to agree on a position, #Guadians reports.
“Will we be able to reach a consensus? I think so, but I’m not positive. It’s 50/50, a representative stated.
With a separate package of controls being developed to deal with the crisis levels of migration observed after the onset of the war in Ukraine and in 2015, when more than 1 million refugees were welcomed by Germany, the ideas are focused on irregular migration to Europe.
However, the plans have proven to be quite divisive, with Poland, Hungary, and other EU bordering nations failing to understand how to sell them to their citizens.
However, according to reports, diplomats from member nations have recently concurred that “there is no mandatory relocation,” so to speak.
Instead, the policy would aim to impose “compulsory solidarity,” which will take into account the ability of host countries to absorb migrants, keeping in mind nations like Ireland, which is experiencing a housing crisis, or Poland, which is currently hosting around 1 million refugees.
Countries who are unable to participate will be required to contribute to a common fund, which will be used to increase the financial stability of nations that do accept migrants.
The EU received 966,000 asylum applications last year, up 50% from 2021.
There have been heated debates over whether the regulation allowed for the return of migrants to Greece, Italy, Spain, or other nations.
After Italy claimed that there was insufficient space at its facilities for receiving them, a Dutch court ruled in April that sending refugees back to Italy would expose them to the risk of “material mistreatment.”
The Dublin Regulation, which permitted countries to transfer migrants back to the country in which they first came, has failed, and the EU has agreed to reform its immigration and asylum policies as a result of “many, many years” of evidence to that effect.
