EU PACT ON MIGRATION AND ASYLUM - INTERNATIONAL
News: Explained
| The 'historic' new pact on migrants that EU countries finalised
What's in the news?
● The European
Union and Member states have reached an agreement to reform the bloc’s
migration policy through ‘New Pact on Migration and Asylum’.
New Pact on Migration and Asylum – European
Commission:
● The
reform includes speedier vetting of
irregular arrivals, creating border detention centers, and accelerated
deportation for rejected asylum applicants.
● The
pact still needs to be formally approved by the European
Council, representing the 27 member nations, and the European Parliament,
before it enters the bloc’s law books, likely in 2024.
New Pact on Migration and Asylum deal:
1. Screening Regulation:
● It
envisions a pre-entry procedure to swiftly examine an asylum seeker’s profile
and collect basic information such as nationality, age, fingerprints and facial
image.
2. Eurodac Regulation:
● It
is a large-scale database that will store the biometric evidence collected
during the screening process.
3. Asylum Procedures Regulation:
● It
sets two possible steps for migrants: the traditional asylum procedure, which
usually takes several months to complete and a fast-tracked border procedure,
meant to last a maximum of 12 weeks.
4. Asylum and Migration Management Regulation:
● It
establishes a system of “mandatory solidarity” that will offer countries three
options to manage migration flows:
○ Relocate
a certain number of asylum seekers.
○ Pay
a contribution for each claimant they refuse to relocate.
○ Finance
operational support.
5. Crisis Regulation:
● It
foresees exceptional rules that will apply when the bloc’s asylum system is
threatened by a sudden and massive arrival of refugees, as was the case
during COVID-19 pandemic.
● In
these circumstances, national authorities will be allowed to apply tougher
measures, including longer detention periods.
Go back to basics:
European Union (EU):
● It
was founded in 1957 with
originally six members: Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the
Netherlands.
● The
EU is a political and economic grouping of 27
countries committed to shared democratic values.
● The Euro is the shared official
currency of 19 EU members known collectively as the eurozone.