EU prepares strategy to deport rejected asylum seekers

BRUSSELS

The European Union is set to deport migrants whose applications for asylum or regularization have been rejected.

The interior ministers of the bloc came together Thursday in Stockholm to work on migration policies.

The informal meeting was held ahead of the gathering of all 27 EU heads of state on Feb. 10, where migration will dominate the agenda.

At the end of the first day of talks, EU Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson told journalists that over 300,000 people entered the EU illegally last year.

She said a total of 924,000 asylum applications were posted in the EU in 2022.

“That means we have three times more asylum applications than irregular arrivals, and these are overloading the reception capacities,” Johansson said, adding most of these migrants are not in need of international protection.

- Cooperation with third countries

Sweden’s Minister for Migration Maria Malmer Stenergard said the reception capacity of many member states has been under pressure and there are now more refugees in many countries than there were in 2015 and 2016.

Stenergard said that one of the most important reasons for the low readmission rates is the weakness of third country cooperation.

One of the key tools for improving cooperation with third countries on readmission is Article 25, she said.

She said that according to this mechanism, the European Commission will regularly evaluate the level of cooperation of third countries in the field of readmission and submit its report to the European Parliament.

Accordingly, countries will intensify their political and diplomatic efforts to achieve the desired results, she noted.