Visit our website:
http://www.france24.com
Like us on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/FRANCE24.English
Follow us on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/France24_en
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 After years of wrangling and being accused of lacking political will, there's been an apparent breakthrough on the EU's asylum policy.
00:06 On Thursday, the bloc's interior ministers in Luxembourg reached a deal revising the EU's rules to share the hosting of asylum seekers and migrants.
00:15 But it remains contentious.
00:17 Poland and Hungary voted against it, while Bulgaria, Malta, Lithuania and Slovakia abstained.
00:22 Still, the deal got the needed approval from a majority of countries, representing at least 65% of the bloc's population.
00:31 I'm joined on the set by our Europe editor, Armin Djordje.
00:34 Hello to you, Armin.
00:36 Tell us a little bit more about what they have agreed to.
00:39 Well, first of all, certain categories of asylum seekers would be processed at EU borders.
00:45 So on arrival, in theory, then some of them would be sent away immediately if they're considered to have no chance of being eligible to file an asylum application.
00:58 But sent away to where?
01:00 That's also a crucial question.
01:02 If the definition of a safe country can be made looser, then it would be easier, at least in theory, to send a migrant to a, quote, safe country, unquote.
01:13 So, for example, Italy could say, well, this individual has passed through Tunisia, therefore there's a connection between him and Tunisia.
01:22 Therefore, we can, quote, send back that person to Tunisia.
01:27 The other aspect, Will, is relocation of people who have been accepted on EU soil.
01:33 The idea here is that if an EU member state doesn't wish to host a migrant that's been sort of, so to speak, earmarked for relocation,
01:44 that country can, instead of taking the migrant in, can pay into an EU common fund,
01:50 which will be used to finance various projects such as trying to break the human smuggling networks and things of that nature.
01:58 But there's been resistance to this burden sharing, to use a loaded term, idea in the past.
02:04 And there's no reason why the same idea isn't going to run into resistance going forward.
02:09 And this isn't a completely done deal as well.
02:12 Now, you saw at the top of our news bulletin, we're speaking to a reporter in Annecy, Karis Garland,
02:17 who said the knife attack in Annecy reigniting debate about migration and immigration here in France.
02:23 Would this new deal have affected the suspects of presence here on French soil?
02:30 Well, let's try and break this down.
02:31 I mean, the French Interior Ministry has confirmed that the Annecy attacker entered France legally because he had previously been granted asylum in Sweden,
02:41 which did give him the right to travel across the Schengen free travel area, which includes France.
02:49 What he wasn't supposed to do was to file a second asylum application in France.
02:55 And by the time the French office that handles these things is called OPFRA,
03:02 by the time that office realized what was going on, he'd been in France for a certain length of time.
03:09 And he was notified that his his claim had been rejected on June the 4th.
03:17 So what this whole very appalling incident has highlighted is the first of all,
03:25 the speed and competence with which certain French administrative bodies work,
03:31 because the information was there about his his status in Sweden.
03:36 But apparently that wasn't that sort of didn't filter through immediately.
03:40 And of course, the bigger question about harmonization of asylum rules across the EU.
03:48 That's a slightly different focus, though, from the deal that was reached by EU Home Affairs ministers in Luxembourg that I was talking to you about before.
03:56 Well, all right, Armin, thank you very much. Armin Georgian, French Supreme Court's Europe editor.