EU asylum reform: pressure mounts for agreement before Christmas
With the reform of the Common European Asylum System (CEAS), the European Union wants to learn the lessons of 2015 and 2016, when more than one million people came to Germany alone, after years of dispute. At the heart of the five legislative texts are stricter asylum rules and relief for main countries of arrival such as Italy and Greece.
The planned asylum procedures at the external borders, which are intended to prevent people with particularly low chances of being accepted from continuing their journey, are particularly controversial. Parliament is pushing for exceptions for families with children up to the age of twelve, but has so far been unsuccessful.
Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) nevertheless expressed confidence that a compromise could be reached: "After years of tough negotiations, we are on the home straight," she wrote in the short message service X.
The German Greens in particular are insisting on exemptions for families with children. The German government was largely isolated among the member states with this demand and is hoping that Parliament will persevere.
Pro Asyl shares this hope: "Children behind barbed wire, deportations to unsafe third countries and virtually lawless areas at the external borders can still be prevented if the EU Parliament remains strong," explained the refugee aid organization.
The fronts in the EU have also hardened on the issue of "safe third countries". Countries such as Italy and Austria want to send asylum seekers back to Albania or Tunisia. Parliament is demanding high hurdles for this, such as a genuine connection between the refugees and the country and access to the labor market.
Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) criticized this so-called "Rwanda model" during a visit to Kigali. The CDU, on the other hand, shows sympathy for such a takeover of refugees, as the UK has agreed with Rwanda.
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Source: www.stern.de
