BRUSSELS: The European Union on Wednesday agreed to an overhaul of its asylum system that includes more border detention centres and speedier deportations, prompting migrant charities to slam the changes as "dangerous".
But EU governments, officials and MEPs hailed the preliminary accord on the bloc's new pact on asylum and migration as "historic", saying it updated procedures to handle growing irregular arrivals while maintaining respect for human rights.
The legislative reform reached after lengthy negotiations between EU member countries and bloc lawmakers, has yet to be formally adopted by the European Council and European Parliament.
That is expected to be done before June 2024, when EU elections will decide the next parliament.
Nationalist, anti-immigrant parties are forecast to win more seats in the parliament, reflecting a harder stance among EU voters struggling with a high cost of living.
European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen welcomed the "historic" agreement on "a fair and pragmatic approach to managing migration".
Many EU countries, including France, Germany, Spain and the Netherlands also hailed the accord.
@eu2023es delivers @EUCouncil and @Europarl_EN reach breakthrough in the reform to improve the EU migration and asylum system. A political agreement has been reached on the five files of the EU new Pact on Migration and Asylum.#EU2023ES pic.twitter.com/Fr70DGFZzM
— Presidencia española del Consejo de la UE (@eu2023es) December 20, 2023Italy's interior minister, Matteo Piantedosi, called the agreed reform a "great success", saying frontline countries like his own "no longer feel alone".
But Hungary -- which objects to having to take in irregular migrants or pay countries that do -- rejected the deal in the "strongest possible terms," its foreign minister Peter Szijjarto said.
Faster screening
The EU reform includes faster vetting of irregular arrivals, creating border detention centres, accelerated deportation for rejected asylum applicants and a solidarity mechanism to take pressure off southern countries experiencing big inflows.
The overhaul, based on a commission proposal put forward three years ago, keeps the existing principle under which the first EU country an asylum-seeker enters is responsible for their case.
But to help countries experiencing a high number of arrivals -- as is the case with Mediterranean countries Italy, Greece and Malta -- a compulsory solidarity mechanism would be set up.
That would mean a certain number of migrant relocations to other EU countries, or countries that refuse to take in migrants would provide a financial or material contribution to those that do -- something Budapest is fiercely against.
The reform also accelerates the vetting of asylum-seekers so those deemed ineligible can be quickly sent back to their home country or country of transit.
That procedure -- which requires border detention centres being set up -- would apply to irregular migrants coming from countries whose nationals' asylum requests are rejected in more than 80 per cent of cases.
Families with young children would have adequate conditions, human rights monitoring would take place and free legal advice provided, MEPs said.
20th December 2023 will go down in history. The day the EU reached a landmark agreement on a new set of rules to manage migration and asylum. Europe has once again defied the odds. I'm very proud that with the Migration & Asylum Pact, we have delivered and provided solutions. pic.twitter.com/Ic2AXYeKqN
— Roberta Metsola (@EP_President) December 20, 2023Another point is a proposed "surge response" under which protections for asylum-seekers could be curtailed in times of significant inflows, as happened in 2015-2016 when more than two million asylum-seekers arrived in the EU, many from war-torn Syria.
Reactions to the new set of rules
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced his "satisfaction" with the effort "to implement a strict but fair immigration policy".
UNHCR chief Filippo Grandi said the agreement was "a very positive step" and the UN refugee agency "stands ready to advise and support" as it is put into action.
Congrats to the EU and @EU_Commission for reaching a political agreement on the European pact on migration and asylum and especially @YlvaJohansson for her persistence and leadership. It is a very positive step. Now to its implementation! UNHCR stands ready to advise and support.
— Filippo Grandi (@FilippoGrandi) December 20, 2023The EU is seeing a rising number of irregular migrant arrivals and asylum requests.
In the first 11 months of this year, the EU border agency Frontex has registered more than 355,000 irregular border crossings into the bloc, an increase of 17 per cent over the same period last year.
The number of asylum-seekers this year could top one million, according to the EU Agency for Asylum.
