On Wednesday, Commissioner Margaritis Schinas and Commissioner for Migration Ylva Johansson presented a proposal to soften some EU asylum rules.
If implemented, the proposal would allow countries to extend the asylum process and simplify deportations. “Fundamental rights are not touched,” said Johansson. The measures should initially apply for six months.
The proposal provides that the authorities of the border countries have longer to register asylum applications – four weeks instead of the previous ten days. According to the Commission’s wishes, the asylum process could take up to 16 weeks. During this time, people are usually placed in reception centers near the border. The Commission also wants to allow easier and faster deportations. The measures are now to be adopted by the Member States.
For weeks several thousand people have been trying to get from Belarus across the EU’s external borders to Poland or the Baltic states. The EU accuses the authoritarian Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko of targeting people from crisis regions to Minsk in order to smuggle them into the EU.
Source From: Nachrichten
