The interior of a room for migrants in the Gjader immigration processing facility has beds, metal storage space, and a bolted-down metal table with attached stools.
Out of sight, out of mind
Nonetheless, some analysts say the concepts underpinning the Albania-Italy deal will likely remain in play. The Italian project echoes the United Kingdom’s plans to send asylum-seekers to Rwanda. The British Parliament approved the idea, but execution stalled due to legal challenges. New British Prime Minister Keir Starmer scrapped the plan in July.
Replicas of the Albania deal appear likely despite the legal and political challenges they would face. Many governments like the “out of sight, out of mind” approach.
“Many member states want to pursue a similar model,” says Hanne Beirens, director of the Brussels-based nongovernmental organization Migration Policy Institute Europe. “The question is not whether the political interest will be maintained, but whether it will be feasible to implement.”
“At this moment, almost all EU leaders are modifying … their stances on migration, adopting a more restrictive approach and even expressing doubts about multiculturalism,” notes Dr. Nogueira Pinto.
Last April, the EU adopted a new pact on migration and asylum, creating a Europe-wide system designed to speed up asylum procedures, among other goals. It leaves room for governments to offshore migrant processing and holds out the prospect that more failed asylum applicants will be returned to their home countries – an ambition close to Ms. von der Leyen’s heart.
Europeans are deeply influenced by the memory of 2 million people arriving in the EU in 2015-16. This triggered a “never again” mindset, Dr. Beirens suggests, and pressure rose for governments to impose stricter controls on economic migration.
That focus was sharpened, she adds, by the post-COVID-19 surge in migrant crossings. Austria, for example, is experiencing a wave of migrants not seen since 2015-16. That trend, combined with major EU elections, has pushed migration up the broader political agenda.
Across the continent, the mood is changing. Countries that once upheld the EU asylum system, such as Germany, now question their capacity to manage further influxes, especially after the arrival of Ukrainian refugees. Germany has reintroduced border controls, citing its overwhelmed asylum systems.
The Netherlands, traditionally a supporter of EU-wide migration policies, recently asked to be allowed to opt out of the EU migration pact. The coalition government dominated by far-right politician Geert Wilders is now floating the idea of sending rejected asylum-seekers to Uganda.
And as increasing numbers of Belarusians try to get into Poland, Warsaw wants to temporarily suspend the right to asylum.
“A series of proposals are being made that no longer seem to account for the rules and basic principles that have been laid down in EU migration frameworks for the last three decades,” says Dr. Bereins. “It is really quite a drastic change that we have seen in a very short period of time.”
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Publish date : 2024-10-22 13:17:00
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