The crisis caused by the pandemic and the war in Ukraine and especially the rise of the far right have created a hostile climate towards migrants. European governments are increasingly radicalizing their discourse and actions regarding migratory flows. Border controls within the Schengen free movement area, outsourcing of reception centers, strengthening of returns, agreements with third countries despite human rights violations… all this leads to a toughening of policies which threatens even the yet-to-be-born Pact on Migration and Asylum, which the EU accepted this agreement a few months ago after years of negotiations and under pressure that the rise of ultra-forces would complicate matters later.
This pact, which will begin to be applied in two years, when the 27 have brought their systems into compliance with the new legislation, already does not meet the expectations of many countries. Italian far-right Giorgia Meloni has launched the controversial “Rwandan model” under which the management of asylum seekers takes place outside the EU borders. In the case of Italy, the agreement was concluded with Albania. Despite complaints from NGOs claiming that this is an attack on the right to asylum, 15 countries have requested that this avenue be explored at European level. And the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, opened the door to implementing this model.
But beyond going beyond the rules agreed in advance, which in itself implied a strengthening of controls aimed at “Fortress Europe”, some governments directly wish to stay outside the legislation. The Netherlands has formally requested this from the EU. The new Minister of Asylum and Migration, Marjolein Faber, from the populist Geert Wilders party, sent a letter to the European Commission in which she proposes the voluntary exclusion of this country from the Community asylum policy. “I have just informed the European Commission that I would like an opt-out (exception) on migration for the Netherlands within Europe. “We must take back control of our own asylum policy! » declared the far right.
Brussels responded with a categorical “no”. “We take note of the letter and the fact that the ministry knows that an opt-out is only possible with treaty amendments. “It is a legal obligation,” replied a spokesperson. There are no plans in sight to reform the EU treaty, which was last amended in 2009, and if this melon were opened, the rest of the partners would have to accept this exception for the Netherlands in their war against asylum, which is unlikely. .
But the fertile ground has already been created. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán was quick to support the Dutch proposal. “Finally a courageous government. “Where can Hungary sign?”, he expressed on the social network X (formerly Twitter) in a message accompanied by a “no migration”.
The Hungarian extreme right, which has been sentenced to a million dollar fine and an increase of one million euros per day for violating the current legal framework during the 2015 crisis, he has already announced that his country will not accept the obligatory distribution of refugee quotas stipulated in the new regulations and which even allow payment for their refusal. But in this case, he is not the only one, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, from the European family of the PP, also rejected it by assuring that Poland “will not accept a single migrant” relocated to the basis of the European pact: “The harsh reality is that the survival of Western civilization depends on preventing uncontrolled migration.”
Germany closes its doors
Hardening also comes from traditionally welcoming capitals, such as Berlin or Paris. Germany has introduced controls at all its borders. He did this after the regional victory of the far right and its rise in power led the tripartite government (socialists, liberals and greens) to present a very tough plan against immigration, which includes the loss of protection of refugees if they go on vacation in their country. country of origin or limits benefits to candidates registered in another European country.
France joined Germany. Despite the victory of the New Popular Front, Emmanuel Macron formed a right-wing government with Michel Barnier and winked at Marine Le Pen. They placed Bruno Retailleau, from the hardest wing of the French right, who came to associate immigration with delinquency. He wants to recover some of the harshest provisions of the immigration law that the Constitutional Court has censored and has proposed “an alliance with the major European countries which want to toughen up and which have already toughened their legislative arsenal” against immigration. Among the things he wants to strengthen is the European directive on expulsions.
The issue, which gives rise to strange alliances like that of the German socialist Olaf Scholz and the Italian far right Giorgia Meloni, will be raised again during the European Council which will be held in mid-October.
Amid all this chaos, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen placed Magnus Brunner of the Austrian government, one of the toughest against immigration, at the head of the delicate portfolio of Interior and of Migration. In addition to implementing the migration pact, Germany was tasked, among other things, with developing “a new common approach to the return of illegal immigrants, with new modern regulations to speed up and simplify the return process.”
The new migration pact was narrowly adopted in the European Parliament with the support of the EPP, the social democrats and the liberals, although with some leaks and criticism, and the rejection of the far right (except for the files aimed at strengthen border control) and the Greens and the Left. “There is a lot of interest from the popular, the socialists, the liberals and part of the far right to implement the pact as quickly as possible,” said MEP Sumar Estrella Galán, who believes that it should be renegotiated from scratch.
What Galán, who is part of the Interior Committee of the European Parliament, considers that a good part of the hardening that we are experiencing is justified in the pact itself, such as the controls in Germany, which are still the selection process who sets the new rules. The former director general of the Spanish Commission for Assistance to Refugees (CEAR) met with the future commissioner, whom she asked to work on regular routes and quotas of people in line with the Canadian model, saying that the pact represents a “threatens” if it is not applied “rigorously in terms of human rights”.
