MEPs back tougher migration and asylum laws
Ahead of the European Elections in June, MEPs backed the new Migration and Asylum Pact on April 10, The Associated Press (AP) reported.
The bill will toughen regulations on asylum into EU countries, with the hope of easing controversies of how to manage the entry of a significant number of people without adequate documentation.
The new rules were met with a degree of anger as facial images and fingerprints could be taken from migrant children as young as six years old and people may be detained during the screening process.
10 votes took place as members narrowly voted in favour of the regulations of the Migration and Asylum Pact. The reforms address the contentious issue of who takes responsibility for migrants when they arrive and whether other EU countries should be obliged to help.
The 27 members must now endorse the reforms before they can be put in place, potentially in a vote later this month.
It is understood that there was appetite for fresh and tougher migration laws from mainstream parties so that the far-right across the 27 EU countries are starved of healthy support come the poll in early June.
Polling carried out last month in France showed that Marine Le Pen’s hard-right Rassemblement National (RN) were leading the polls and are on 31% – 13 points ahead of President Emmanuel Macron’s Renaissance Party.
Trends are similar in Italy and Hungary as Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy Party have a seven-point lead over the Social Democratic Party (PD) and Viktor Orban’s hardline conservative Fidesz Party are comfortably ahead in the polls. Polling was carried on the March 12 and 13 in Italy and on April 4 in Hungary.
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Whilst the reforms attracted support from across the political spectrum, parliamentarians were heckled during the proceedings as protesters loudly urged them to vote no whilst donning t-shirts bearing the phrase “this pact kills”.
22 charities also raised concerns about the new pact, saying in a statement that it “leaves troubling cracks deep within Europe’s approach to asylum and migration, and fails to offer sustainable solutions for people seeking safety at Europe’s borders.”
Irish MEP Barry Andrews, of the conservative Fianna Fail Party, said that the reforms were helpful but “not perfect”.
Andrews commented, “We are in dire need of a robust, efficient and streamlined system of processing international protection applicants.”
“In recent years we have seen significant increases in the number of migrants seeking asylum in Ireland.”
The number of asylum seekers arriving in Ireland has shot up significantly over the past few years. There were 13,000 asylum applications in Ireland in 2022, a 415% increase compared with 2021.
Also, over 100,000 Ukrainians have sought refuge in the country since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
355,300 non-EU migrants entered the continent last year, the highest recorded since 2016.
AP/ The Guardian
