Europe must act in a coordinated manner against secondary migration, demanded Keller-Sutter in an interview with the “Neue Zürcher Zeitung”. Only 2 percent of all migrants who came to Bosnia also applied for asylum there. Greece also serves as a transit point for many people.
Secondary migration has become a stress test for the entire European asylum system. A common European return policy is needed. If refugees could choose which country to live in, that would be the beginning of the end of the Dublin system, said Keller-Sutter, who held talks on October 22nd on migration in Bosnia and Greece.
In Switzerland, the accelerated procedure for asylum applications has proven its worth. Since she took over the Justice Department three years ago, almost all cases under the old law have been dismantled. There are now 130 cases. Before that it was over 11,000.
The fact that the Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko is deliberately bringing refugees and migrants to the border is an attempt at destabilization. Belarus uses people as weapons. That is reprehensible. Europe must be much more robust towards Lukashenko. Situations like in Poland or Lithuania, on the other hand, need to be resolved politically – not only in Minsk, but also in Moscow. (SDA)