Having barely adopted the major reform of European migration policy, more than half of the member states of the European Union (EU) are pleading for “new solutions” aimed at transferring migrants to third countries, which raise many questions.
These proposals come three weeks before the European elections for which polls predict a surge in far-right parties.
Fifteen countries, including Denmark, the Czech Republic, Italy and Greece, sent a letter to the European Commission, saying that “complementary efforts” to the European Pact on Migration and Asylum were necessary.
This reform, which obtained the final green light from EU countries on Tuesday after years of tough negotiations, strengthens the control of arrivals in the bloc and establishes a system of solidarity between Member States in the care of applicants. asylum. It will apply in 2026.
The Commission indicated that it would examine the letter. “Currently all our work and attention is focused on the implementation” of the pact, however, underlined a spokesperson, Anitta Hipper, interviewed during the daily press briefing of the European Commission.
The fifteen countries ask Brussels “to identify, develop and propose new means and new solutions to prevent irregular immigration to Europe”.
They therefore call for mechanisms to “detect, intercept and, in the event of distress, rescue migrants on the high seas and take them to a safe place in a partner country outside the EU, where solutions sustainable solutions could be found for these migrants.
They also suggest following the example of the agreement concluded by Italy with Albania, intended to send migrants rescued in Italian waters to this EU candidate country so that their asylum requests can be processed there. .
In order to prevent migrants whose asylum applications have been rejected from remaining in the EU, they also propose to cooperate with third countries in order to transfer these people there, while waiting for them to be returned to their countries. native country.
“Very expensive” models
European law provides that an immigrant arriving in the EU can be sent to a country outside the bloc where they could have requested asylum, provided they have a sufficient “link” with this third country. Which excludes at this stage a United Kingdom / Rwanda type model.
But the signatories of the letter believe that “the application of the concept of “safe third country” in European asylum law must be reassessed”, as well as this criterion of “link” with this third country.
More generally, they want to increase agreements with third countries located along migratory routes, citing as an example partnerships already concluded, such as that with Turkey to retain Syrian refugees in 2016, or with Tunisia in 2023.
The EU, which also hosts more than 4 million Ukrainian refugees, is facing an increase in asylum applications, which reached 1.14 million in 2023, their highest level since 2016, according to the European Agency for asylum. “Irregular” entries into the EU are also increasing, to 380,000 in 2023, according to Frontex.
The fifteen signatory countries are Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Estonia, Greece, Italy, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, the Netherlands, Austria, Poland and Romania.
Camille Le Coz, associate director at the Migration Policy Institute Europe think tank, notes that “so far, none of these models have managed to be truly implemented in Europe”, including the agreement between the United Kingdom United and Rwanda.
“In legal terms, these models raise many questions and are very costly in terms of resource mobilization and at the operational level,” she explains, stressing that the opening of migrant reception centers in Albania provided for by the agreement with Rome was delayed.
These proposals will be “on the agenda of the next Commission, which will a priori be quite right-wing on these subjects”, believes the expert, who also notes that countries like France, Germany or Spain had not not signed the letter.
“For a certain number of Member States, the priority is really the implementation of the pact, that will already be an enormous amount of work,” she notes.