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Refugee crisis: EU governments set to back new detention measures Thousands of refugees may lose right of asylum under EU plans
(35 minutes later)
EU governments are expected to back radical new plans for the detention of “irregular migrants”, the creation of large new refugee camps in Italy and Greece and longer-term aims for the funding and building of refugee camps outside the EU to try to stop people coming to Europe. European governments are aiming to deny the right of asylum to innumerable thousands of refugees by funding and building camps for them in Africa and elsewhere outside the EU, under plans being discussed by ministers in Brussels on Monday evening.
A crunch meeting of EU interior ministers in Brussels, called to grapple with Europe’s largest refugee crisis since the second world war, was also expected to water down demands from the European commission, strongly supported by Germany, for the obligatory sharing of refugees across at least 22 countries. An emergency meeting of interior ministers called to grapple with Europe’s worst modern refugee crisis was also expected to call for the establishment of refugee camps in Italy and Greece and for the detention of “irregular migrants” denied asylum and facing deportation but for whom “voluntary return” was not currently “practicable”.
Related: Refugee crisis: EU plans new internment camps – live updates The ministers faced a bruising battle over whether Europe should adopt a new system of mandatory quotas for sharing refugees. The scheme, proposed by the European commission last week, is strongly supported by Germany which sought to impose the idea on the rejectionists mainly in eastern Europe.
A four-page draft statement, prepared on Monday morning by EU ambassadors before the ministers met, focused on “Fortress Europe” policies amid increasing confusion as a number of countries set up border controls in the Schengen free-travel area that embraces 26 countries. Related: Hungary transports refugees to Austria before border clampdown
The draft statement, obtained by the Guardian, said “reception facilities will be organised so as to temporarily accommodate people” in Greece and Italy while they are identified, registered, and finger-printed. Their asylum claims are to be processed quickly and those who fail are to be deported promptly, the ministers say in the draft statement. Hungary’s hardline anti-immigration government said it would have no part of the scheme, from which it would benefit, while Thomas de Maiziere, the German interior minister, complained that the agenda for the meeting was inadequate.
The ministers agreed to share 160,000 refugees across at least 22 countries, taking them from Greece, Hungary, and Italy, but they sought to delay a formal decision until next month, made plain the scheme should be voluntary rather than binding and demanded “flexibility”. De Maiziere, by contrast, called for precise definitions of how refugees would be shared.
A draft statement prepared in advance for the meeting went further than previous proposals about outsourcing asylum-processing to countries mainly in Africa where “reception centres” or refugee camps would be built.
Related: Refugees confounded by Merkel’s decision to close German borders
In what will be seen by humanitarian and refugee professionals as a draconian step, the statement said: “Implementation shall start on a medium-term strategy aimed at developing safe and sustainable reception capacities in the affected regions and providing lasting prospects and adequate procedures for refugees and their families until return to their country of origin is possible.”
Once the system was up and running, EU members would be “in a position to find asylum applications of these persons inadmissible on safe third-country grounds”.
The proposal was supported by the home secretary, Theresa May. She said: “We also need to be setting up removal centres in transit countries in Africa. By doing these things we can be sure we offer protection to those who need it and return the economic migrants who do not.”
Claude Moraes, the Labour MEP who chairs the European parliament’s civil liberties committee, said the proposal was invidious.
“The principle of asylum must be preserved at the heart of one of the key proposals. The idea of safe countries could potentially corrupt this right,” said Moraes who worked for many years as an immigration lawyer.
The meeting took place as curbs on free movement across Europe snowballed following Germany’s unilateral and controversial decision on Sunday to re-establish national border controls at the centre of Europe’s free-travel Schengen area of 26 countries.
Austria and Slovakia followed suit on Monday, while the Dutch said they were stepping up “border area patrols” and the Belgian authorities said they were considering parallel action.
The Hungarians are to implement draconian border controls from Tuesday, criminalising migrants who cross the border from Serbia without permission, following the completion of a 110-mile fence and blocking off of the main refugee crossing point along a railway line on Monday.
The prime minister, Viktor Orbán, told Hungary’s TV2 he expected a high rate of asylum requests to be rejected after the new rules took effect from midnight, with failed applicants sent back to Serbia. He was also quoted as saying a state of emergency was “likely” to be introduced in the border area from Tuesday.
The political disarray was reflected in the chaos on the ground as thousands sought to beat the new rules in Hungary by entering from Serbia. The Hungarians filled trains to Austria, where the borders to Germany were clogged as a result of the new German regime
The statement drafted for the interior ministers said that “reception facilities will be organised so as to temporarily accommodate people” in Greece and Italy while they are identified, registered, and finger-printed. Asylum claims are to be processed quickly and those who fail are to be deported promptly, the draft said.
“It is crucial that robust mechanisms become operational immediately in Italy and Greece to ensure identification, registration and fingerprinting of migrants; to identify persons in need of international protection and support their relocation; and to identify irregular migrants to be returned.”“It is crucial that robust mechanisms become operational immediately in Italy and Greece to ensure identification, registration and fingerprinting of migrants; to identify persons in need of international protection and support their relocation; and to identify irregular migrants to be returned.”
The Europeans are to set up “rapid border intervention teams” to be deployed at “sensitive external borders”. Failed asylum seekers who are expected to try to move to another EU country from Greece or Italy can be interned, the statement says. The Europeans are to set up new “rapid border intervention teams” to be deployed at “sensitive external borders”. People denied asylum who are expected to try to move to another EU country from Greece or Italy can be placed in detention, the draft said.
“When voluntary return is not practicable and other measures on return are inadequate to prevent secondary movements, detention measures ... should be applied.”“When voluntary return is not practicable and other measures on return are inadequate to prevent secondary movements, detention measures ... should be applied.”
The European commission demanded last week that at least 22 EU countries accept a new system of quotas for refugees, with 160,000 redistributed from Greece, Italy and Hungary under a binding new system.
Germany is insisting on the binding nature of the proposed scheme and its unilateral decision on Sunday to re-establish national border controls within the Schengen area was widely seen as an attempt to force those resisting mandatory quotas to yield. The resistance is strongest in eastern and central Europe.
The draft says ministers are “committed” to sharing the 160,000, but made no mention of the system being obligatory, said no formal decision on the matter would be taken until next month and appeared to dilute the commission’s call by describing it as “the basis” for a decision, which would also pay “due regard to the flexibility that could be needed by member states in the implementation of the decision, in particular to accommodate unforeseen developments”.
In the medium-term, the draft says, the EU should aim at funding and building refugee camps outside Europe and that failed asylum-seekers could be sent from Europe to these camps, which would not be in their countries of origin.
The EU should aim “at developing safe and sustainable reception capacities in the affected regions and providing lasting prospects and adequate procedures for refugees and their families until return to their country of origin is possible”.
EU governments would then be “in a position to find asylum applications of these persons inadmissible on safe third country grounds ... after which swift assisted return can follow”.