Each government has its own truth on the refugee issue

Nancy Faeser (SPD) did not even appear at the crisis meeting of EU interior ministers on Friday afternoon in Brussels. On Thursday she had said in the Bundestag that Germany currently has "no major migration crisis". But will it stay like this? And what happens if the crisis of 2015 repeats itself in the near future? The EU would be overwhelmed, because European migration and asylum policy has been rumbling along for years.

The special meeting came about under pressure from France. The result: manageable. All sides reassured themselves to do more to combat irregular migration. An important question remains how to deal with boat people in the Mediterranean. A minor incident had recently sparked a major dispute between Paris and Rome. French President Emmanuel Macron was so bitter afterwards that he pushed for a special meeting of EU interior ministers.

The reason was the refusal of the new Italian government, led by post-fascist Giorgia Meloni, to allow the non-governmental organization's ship with 234 rescued migrants on board to dock in Italy, even though that was the nearest port. After days of odyssey, the ship finally docked in Toulon, France. From the point of view of the EU Commission, however, Italy was legally obliged to take in the refugees and thus broke the law.

France's interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, confirmed on Friday evening that his country would only accept refugees from Italy again if it no longer ensured that rescue ships from aid organizations went to France. "We need to get out of a situation where the same states are called upon to absorb ships and carry out resettlement from other member states," Darmanin said.

The argument is not surprising. Irregular migration has once again become a hot political issue in many EU countries, notably in Italy, France and Austria, where right-wing populists are pushing for lockdown.

The second major issue is the question of distribution. The Mediterranean countries are no longer willing to care for and register all newcomers from third countries, as they are legally obliged to do. Meloni has been railing for weeks about the "taxis of the seas," i.e. lifeboats from private organizations that are said to be cooperating with Libyan smugglers. She wants to impose a “naval blockade” on migrants.

Berlin, on the other hand, is funding private sea rescue on the Mediterranean with eight million euros by 2026. Politics paradoxical. But that is the dilemma of EU migration policy: everyone does what they want. And every government represents its own truth.

According to the Federal Police's annual report, the number of people entering Germany without permission has risen by more than 60 percent. The municipalities sound the alarm and warn against excessive demands. "We leave them to their fate," complains migration expert Ahmad Mansour.

Source: WORLD

Meloni likes to emphasize that Italy is the European leader in terms of the number of arrivals with 95,000 people. What she doesn't say: when it comes to asylum applications, the country only ranks fourth. Because Rome simply waves many migrants through to Northern Europe.

Nevertheless, in June 13 EU countries agreed on a "solidarity mechanism" and promised to take 8,000 migrants from Italy. Germany and France each wanted to take in 3,500 people. By mid-November, however, only 117 migrants had been taken from Italy, 74 from Germany. Rome is outraged by this, while Berlin, on the other hand, points to complicated security checks and insists that only people who have actually been rescued from distress at sea be admitted.

Austria's government is enough now. Interior Minister Gerald Karner (ÖVP) primarily takes on the responsibility of the EU Commission. At the special meeting in Brussels, he called for a new EU “refoulement directive”. It is intended to help migrants from safe countries of origin to be deported again as quickly as possible.

However, the Commission authority prefers to rely on a new "Action Plan" that aims to improve cooperation with countries of origin and transit and provides for a program against people smuggling and new rules for sea rescuers - old ideas that have been around since 2016.