By Serife Cetin
BRUSSELS
EU leaders' support for “regional disembarkation platforms” outside the bloc for migrants is stirring debate throughout the union.
A leaked final draft of a statement on Tuesday revealed that “the European Council supports the development of the concept of regional disembarkation platforms in close cooperation with UNHCR [UN Human Rights Council] and IOM [International Organization of Migration] in order to establish a more predictable framework for dealing with those who nevertheless set out to sea and are rescued in search and rescue operations."
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker later announced the European Council will gather to discuss migration, security, defense, and economic and financial affairs on June 28-29.
In the aftermath of the deepening refugee crisis in Germany, EU leaders are now closer to the idea of “migrant processing centres”, which is controversial in legal and humanitarian terms.
When Germany opened its doors to refugees at the start of the migration crisis, it was hailed as a country that is saving "EU's honour". With recent developments in German domestic politics, it seems that Germany will be shifting its migration policy.
After Italy and Malta turned away a refugee ship carrying 630 migrants, including women and children, Spain’s new Premier Pedro Sanchez on Monday offered to provide safe harbor to the refugees.
Stefan Lehne, a scholar of Carnegie Europe, said Chancellor Angela Merkel's decision in September 2015 war was an important humanitarian gesture and at that time supported by most Germans.
"But many more people arrived than expected and German public opinion turned much more skeptical.
"And so, German migration and asylum policy like in most other EU countries has become more restrictive," Lehne told Anadolu Agency.
Shift on migration policy
Astrid Ziebarth, a senior migration fellow of the German Marshall Fund of the United States, said: "The current dispute definitely has to be seen against the backdrop of the Bavarian State elections in October, in which Horst Seehofer’s Christian Social Union Party [CSU], the sister party of Merkel's Christian Democratic Union [CDU], is slated to lose the clear majority.
"They are currently trying to adapt a harsher stance on migration to win over voters from the Alternative for Germany [AfD]," Ziebarth said.
Merkel declared that she stood firm on her decision in 2015 about "not to close borders and provide protection for those in need"; however, Ziebart said some form of compromise might be expected as Merkel "does not want to risk a breakup of the two sister parties and hence the coalition".
"It is by no means clear how the current dispute between Chancellor Merkel and the Interior Minister Seehofer will develop... In the end, she is the chancellor and has the final authority."
The idea for establishing “migrant processing centers” was first proposed by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who is known for his stance against asylum seekers, in 2016. Recently, Austrian Prime Minister Sebastian Kurz backed the idea.
In a news conference on June 13 with German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer, Kurz proposed an “axis of the willing” against immigration through illegal routes and said centers must be established outside the European Union for refugees on the pretext of securing the external borders of the bloc.
"Axis of the willing" is an unfortunate term for governments, or in the case of Germany parts of governments placing particular emphasis on keeping migrants and asylum seekers from reaching EU territory, Lehne said.
Lehne also noted that EU leaders' favouring the idea of "establishing camps in neighbouring countries where asylum seekers are kept" was controversial in legal and humanitarian terms and very difficult to implement as few third countries would be willing to host such camps.
Ziebarth said the upcoming EU Leaders Summit on the June 28-29 was not expected to produce tangible outcomes to solve some of the deadlocks, especially about the distribution of protection seekers which is a major bone of contention as all decisions have to be taken unanimously at the EU Summit.
Pleasing critics
"Merkel is currently having various bilateral meetings with EU countries to scope out potential for political maneuvering. EU Council President [Donald] Tusk has apparently agreed to put the externalization of asylum procedures on the table for the summit, calling them 'regional disembarkation platforms' which should be run with IOM and UNHCR," Ziebarth said.
This could please the critics, among them Italy and Hungary, and might move some of the dynamics, Ziebarth added. "However, such externalization still would have to answer: what distribution key should be applied for those people who receive a positive protection status?"
Ziebarth said migration crises could be managed, not solved and pointed to possible security concerns because "in the end such camps would certainly also attract smugglers and traffickers."
"So, we need to come to a functioning management system which balances border protection with procedures for people seeking protection so that they can do this in a safe, legal, and regular manner and deportation of those whose claim for asylum is not granted."
It's now three years after the mass influx to EU countries in 2015. A refugee deal between Turkey and the EU has brought a sharp decline, 97 percent, in the irregular migration flow through the Aegean Sea.
Although asylum applications in EU countries declined by 44 percent in 2017, the EU has been dealing with the uptick on the Western Mediterranean route.
"The migration challenge will not go away for decades. There is no silver bullet for solving it, but a number of levers which if used wisely can lead to a sustainable management of migration," Lehne said.
He pointed out that the refugee crises required a collective European response, however, the EU countries were tackling the issue on the national level.
"Effective partnership with countries of origin and transit is probably the key, but there also need to be better control of the external border, stronger legislation, more capable European institution and greater solidarity among member states," Lehne added.
