At a High level Conference on the Eastern Mediterranean and Western Balkans Route, participants have agreed to provide more support to the neighbouring countries of Syria and to transit countries.
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The EU home affairs ministers agreed to increase staff numbers in hotspots and to forge ahead with the return of asylum-seekers whose requests are rejected.
The staff numbers in the planned reception centres in Italy and Greece are to be increased by 670. So far 50 to 70 people are working there. At these "hotspots" as they are known, refugees are to be registered, and from there distributed to all other EU member states. The EU border protection agency FRONTEX is to help distinguish between refugees who are entitled to protection and migrants with no entitlement to stay, agreed the EU’s home affairs and justice ministers.
The hotspots are important to ensure more effective protection of the EU’s external borders. "If Europe has no secure external borders it will rapidly become a Europe full of internal border controls," said Federal Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière before the meeting.
Also on the agenda was an action plan of the European Commission to return asylum-seekers whose requests are rejected. "We can only afford protection to those who are entitled to it, and support them, if those who are not entitled to protection either do not come in the first place, or are rapidly returned to their home countries," said Thomas de Maizière in Luxembourg.
The action plan provides for a package of measures. Countries are to receive incentives to take back their citizens whose requests for asylum are rejected. Member states are called on to return asylum-seekers whose requests are rejected systematically and rigorously. Member states are to cooperate with one another and with FRONTEX to return these individuals. The EU will also provide funding to support return activities.
Countless refugees take the route across the eastern Mediterranean and through the western Balkans. In the evening the home affairs ministers and foreign affairs ministers met with representatives of the western Balkan states, Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan, to discuss how to cope with the flows of migrants.
It was agreed that more support would be provided for Syria’s neighbours, which have taken in millions of Syrian refugees. The transit countries are to be helped receive refugees, register them, and handle the asylum procedure. They will also be helped ensure the swift return of asylum-seekers not in need of protection. Humanitarian aid too is to be increased.
The meeting aimed to initiate a dialogue with the countries of origin of migrants, who cannot be granted the right to stay. Participants also agreed to step up action against illegal traffickers and organised crime. Engagement to resolve the conflict in Syria is to be extended.
Luxembourg’s Minister for Immigration and Asylum, Jean Asselborn, and the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Federica Mogherini, together hosted the High level Conference on the Eastern Mediterranean and Western Balkans Route in Luxembourg. Both the home affairs ministers and the foreign affairs ministers of the European Union met with representatives of Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and the western Balkan states. The associated states and representatives of international organisations also attended.