2023-12-20 21:16:00

The agreement, concluded on the night of Tuesday to Wednesday by MEPs and representatives of the 27, marks the first step towards a toughening of the reception policy of a Europe that has been facing the migration problem for many years. In the first eleven months of the year alone, nearly 355,000 crossings were recorded by the Frontex agency. And asylum applications, for the whole of 2023, might reach one million files according to the European Asylum Agency.

In this context, the 27 have therefore agreed on the broad outlines of a policy whose texts, still to be written with precision, will have to be validated by the Council of Europe and the European Parliament.

In fact, the country through which migrants enter the European Union will remain responsible for their file. But a compulsory solidarity system will be put in place in the event of migratory pressure on Mediterranean countries, the first lands of entry into Europe. Other Member States will either have to welcome asylum seekers or provide financial compensation to host countries.

The reform also provides for a system of filtering migrants, intended to return more quickly to their country those whose chances of obtaining asylum are almost zero. Namely all those who do not flee their country for reasons of persecution or war.

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Finally, the last sticking point concerned the reception of families with minors under 12 years old. The agreement provides that they can be held in closed centers around European borders. Or, for Belgium, near Brussels Airport.

Following this agreement, the Secretary of State for Asylum and Migration, Nicole de Moor, said she welcomed it. “It is necessary to better control who can migrate to the European Union and who cannot,” she says. And it makes sense that all European countries should finally make fair efforts to welcome people who are granted asylum.”

According to his office, the Belgian asylum system is under pressure. “Our asylum procedure and our reception centers welcome too many people who have nothing to do there. Less than half of asylum seekers in our country need protection. This means that the applicants do not come from a conflict zone but want to migrate for economic reasons. This is not what the asylum procedure is for. Other procedures must be followed if you want to come work or study in Belgium.”

According to Nicole de Moor, the distribution key for asylum indicates that Belgium should receive 3.2% of migrants. Or 11,400 applicants for the January-November period. However, it welcomed three times as many (31,500) over the period.

The Secretary of State’s office specifies, however, that although the agreement should authorize it, Belgium will not place minors under the age of 12 in closed centers. “Families with minors under the age of 12 will be placed in reception facilities in which medical care will be guaranteed and schooling assured for children of school age,” we are told.

For their part, human rights associations believe that the agreement, which “does not provide concrete support for countries of first entry into the EU”, consists of a “regression” of asylum policy. “This agreement is likely to result in increased suffering at every stage of the journey for people seeking asylum in the EU,” said Eve Geddie, director of Amnesty International’s European Institutions Office. “It is designed to further hinder these people’s access to safety. The Pact will certainly lead to an increase in the number of people, including families with children, placed in de facto detention at EU borders.”

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