An asylum black list for Europe

By Vince Chadwick

A list of countries whose citizens are ineligible for asylum could be ready by year-end.

The European Commission will draw up a list of “safe countries” whose citizens would automatically be ineligible for asylum, as the region tries to stem unprecedented migrant flows.
First Vice-President Frans Timmermans told Europe 1 radio Tuesday that the list of countries where citizens’ civil and human rights are guaranteed, making it difficult for migrants from those countries to prove they are at risk of persecution back home, could be decided by the end of the year. It would include some Balkan and African countries.

The move is needed, he said, because the current system in which each EU member decides which countries it regards as safe has failed to stem the human flood into Europe.
“For example in Germany, there are quite a few refugees who come from Balkan countries — countries that are candidates to join the European Union. We need to agree to return these people home, because they don’t have the right to asylum,” Timmermans said.
Germany expects to receive a record number of 800,000 asylum seekers this year, which is more than the entire 28-country bloc received last year. In addition to people fleeing conflict in the Middle East, thousands are coming from the Balkans.

“…It’s not very Christian to say we will only accept Christians” — Frans Timmermans, European Commission.

Albania and Kosovo currently account for 40 percent of Germany’s asylum applications. They are not currently on the list of safe countries in the Balkans, though Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Macedonia are deemed safe. Some politicians in Germany favor adding Albania, Kosovo and also Montenegro to the safe-country category to help halt the migrant flow.
On Friday, anti-migrant protests turned violent in front of an asylum center in Heidenau, near Dresden, Germany.
Chancellor Angela Merkel, who only spoke out three days after the event, said Monday, “It is shameful that families and even children are among the crowds.”
Merkel, in a joint press conference with French President François Hollande in Berlin, called for EU action to address the migration issue. They agreed there should be common registration centers in countries where refugees enter Europe, primarily Italy and Greece.
Merkel, who will visit the asylum center in Heidenau on Wednesday, said the registration centers could be staffed by the EU and be operational by year-end.
Time is running out,” she said. “EU member states must share costs.”
Merkel and Hollande also called for equal distribution of refugees among member states through a binding quota system.
“Taking in migrants is not the responsibility of one country alone, but of all of Europe,” Hollande said.
Last month, member countries again failed to reach an agreement on quotas to take in 40,000 refuges. They came up short, with commitments to accept about 32,000. Germany and France accounted for more than half that total.

Timmermans warned that opening the borders entirely “would put an end to the European social system.”

At the same time, he said the policy espoused recently by countries such as Slovakia to only accept Christian migrants was unacceptable.
“It’s terrible and what’s more it’s not very Christian to say we will only accept Christians,” he said.
On the idea of a safe list, Timmermans was confident of convincing Balkan countries to accept the return of their citizens, but said that it would be “much more difficult” with African countries.
“If we act collectively,” he said, “I hope these countries will understand that it is in their interest as well to assure the return of their citizens.”