The European Union migration ministers have gathered to discuss visa limits and improved coordination inside the EU.
The meeting focused on methods to return more people who do not have the right to asylum in Europe to their home countries, especially Iraq.
Only Gambia had been formally punished three years after the EU’s 27-nation agreement to restrict visas for nations considered unwilling to help in returning their people.
Similar procedures were proposed by the EU’s executive European Commission in relation to Iraq, Senegal, and Bangladesh, however two EU sources said cooperation with Dhaka on returning people has subsequently improved.
Nonetheless, according to the most recent Eurostat data, the EU’s overall rate of effective returns was 21% in 2021.
“That is a level that member states consider unacceptably low,” stated one EU official.
“Immigration is a highly politically sensitive topic in the bloc where member countries would much rather discuss stepping up returns, as well as reducing irregular immigration in the first place.
“It will be better than to revive their bitter feuds over how to share out the task of caring for those who make it to Europe and win the right to stay.’’
In a discussion paper for ministers seen by Reuters, the commission stated that “creating an effective and unified EU system for returns is a crucial pillar of well-functioning and credible migration and asylum systems.”
According to United Nations data, approximately 160,000 migrants crossed the Mediterranean in 2022, the major route to Europe for people fleeing wars and poverty in the Middle East, Africa, and Southeast Asia.
In addition, almost 8 million Ukrainian refugees have been registered across Europe.
The ministers will meet two weeks before the 27 EU national leaders meet in Brussels to discuss migration, and they are anticipated to urge for more people to be deported.
“Swift action is needed to ensure effective returns from the European Union to countries of origin using as leverage all relevant EU policies,” read a draft of their joint statement, which was also seen by Reuters.
Inside the EU, however, there is insufficient resources and coordination between different parts of government to ensure each person with no right to stay is effectively returned or deported, according to the Commission.
“Insufficient cooperation of countries of origin is an additional challenge,” it added, naming problems including recognising and issuing identity and travel documents.
However, pressure from migration chiefs to punish some third countries with visa restrictions has in the past run against the EU’s own foreign and development ministers, or failed due to conflicting agendas of various EU countries.
There had therefore not been enough majority among EU countries so far to punish another country apart from Gambia, where people can no longer get multiple entry visas to the bloc and face a longer wait.
While EU countries including Austria and Hungary loudly protest against the mainly-Muslim, irregular immigration from the Middle East and North Africa, Germany is among those seeking to open up their job market to much-needed workers from outside the bloc.