BRUSSELS: The Council of the European Union (EU) today adopted a landmark reform of the European asylum and migration system. This establishes a set of rules that will help to manage arrivals in an orderly way, create efficient and uniform procedures and ensure fair burden sharing between member states.
‘The asylum and migration pact will ensure a fairer and stronger migration system that makes a concrete difference on the ground. These new rules will make the European asylum system more effective and increase solidarity between member states. The European Union will also continue its close cooperation with third countries to tackle the root causes of irregular migration. Only jointly can we find responses to the global migration challenge,’ said Nicole de Moor, Belgian State Secretary for Asylum and Migration.
Complete overhaul of EU asylum and migration system
The Council today adopted a total of 10 legislative acts which reform the entire European framework for asylum and migration management.
The scre
ening regulation will allow national authorities to refer irregular migrants and asylum applicants at an external border to the relevant procedure and will make sure that identification, security and vulnerability checks and health evaluations are carried out in a uniform way.
The new rules regarding the updated Eurodac database will allow for gathering more accurate and complete data (also biometric data) on various categories of migrants, including applicants for international protection and people arriving irregularly in the EU. This will help inform policymaking and enhance the control of irregular migration and unauthorised movements.
The asylum procedure regulation streamlines the European asylum procedure and introduces a mandatory border procedure in well-defined cases. The return border procedure regulation deals with the returns of people whose application in this border procedure is rejected. The asylum and migration management regulation determines which member state is responsible for the exami
nation of applications for international protection and for the first time introduces a fair sharing of responsibility among the member states. Thanks to the crisis regulation the EU will be better equipped to deal with asylum applications in exceptional circumstances.
The qualification regulation and reception conditions directive lay down uniform rules for the criteria for granting international protection and the standards for the reception of asylum seekers. This should also help to reduce secondary movements between member states.
Finally, the resettlement regulation deals with legal and safe pathways to the EU by establishing common rules for resettlement and humanitarian admission.
Source: Emirates News Agency