Dimitri Vernet // Photo credit: PATRICK HERTZOG / AFP
After several months of heated debate, the asylum and immigration pact was adopted by MEPs. The text should make it possible to regulate illegal migration flows more quickly and process asylum requests as quickly as possible, all while better distributing the migratory flow.
MEPs said yes. This Wednesday, in Brussels, the asylum and migration pact was adopted. According to Frontex, the European border guard agency, more than 380,000 people have arrived in the country illegally.
Objective with this new European text: better control migratory flows at the Union’s borders. In fact, the pact requires the screening of migrants upon their arrival. From now on, they will be systematically placed in reception centers in order to be identified and recorded there. Once this check has been carried out, the asylum applications will then be examined via an initial accelerated examination allowing the files to be sorted.
European participation
With this system, those who are considered to have little chance of obtaining asylum because they do not come from a country at war will no longer be able to disperse across Europe while their case is processed. They will be held in centers with closed borders and their request will be processed in less than three months for faster return.
But this text also provides for more solidarity between European countries and in particular a compulsory solidarity mechanism. Each year, at least 30,000 asylum seekers will have to be relocated throughout the European Union in order to relieve countries under heavy migratory pressure, such as Italy or Greece. And if some refuse, they will have to contribute financially to the reception. A fine which does not say its name of 20,000 euros per year for each asylum seeker refused.