New legislation to encourage the expulsion of irregular migrants. This is what the European Commission will propose. “The Commission will present a new legislative proposal” with “clear cooperation obligations for repatriated persons” and the desire to “effectively streamline the return process”, announced Ursula von der Leyen in a letter to the 27 published on Monday evening. The President of the Commission thus responds to the request of several EU Member States.
“We need a new legislative framework to strengthen our capacity to act,” explained the President of the Commission in this letter addressed to EU countries, ahead of the European summit on Thursday and Friday in Brussels, partly dedicated to migration issues .
To do this, Brussels proposes to facilitate the expulsions of people in an irregular situation, in particular by establishing mutual recognition of decisions taken by this or that Member State.
“Alignment of visa policy”
“We need to build a level of harmonization and trust that ensures that migrants, subject to the decision to return to one country, cannot exploit gaps in the system to avoid this return elsewhere,” explained von der Leyen.
Less than 20% of decisions to expel migrants in an irregular situation are followed up, he further underlined, promising strengthened cooperation with the third countries concerned, for example by tightening the granting of visas to recalcitrant countries.
“Visa policy alignment has proven to be an important tool for managing irregular movements into the EU,” noted von der Leyen, taking Bangladesh and Ghana as examples.
The President of the Commission also suggests developing “strategic” relations with the countries of origin and transfer, as already done with Libya or Tunisia. The EU has signed agreements with these countries aimed, among other things, at slowing down the departure of migrants to the EU from their territory, or even repatriating them to their countries of origin.
“Repatriations from North Africa to countries of origin have intensified through EU-funded operations to reach 17,700 (repatriations) in 2024,” von der Leyen welcomed.
First revision attempt failed in 2018
These agreements concluded in Tunisia or Libya have made it possible to reduce irregular entries of migrants into the EU via the central Mediterranean by around 66%, he further underlined.
But, he acknowledged, arrivals in Spain via the western Mediterranean and the Atlantic increased at the end of September by 56% year-on-year. It therefore recommends strengthening the EU’s partnership with countries such as Mauritania, to slow down these departures.
The interior ministers of the European Union discussed a further tightening of migration policy last Thursday in Luxembourg, amid requests for a revision of the “return directive” and discussion on the transfers of migrants to third countries.
Several European countries have called for a review of this 2008 “return directive” which harmonizes rules relating to expulsion at borders.
France and Germany notably supported a note from the Netherlands and Austria on the subject in order to “facilitate” and “accelerate” repatriations. However, a first attempt at an overhaul in 2018 failed.
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