EU Starts Tackling Issue Of Migrant Returns By Updating Visa Rules For Countries Of Origin

The Council of the European Union has adopted a batch of amendments to its visa code regulations that allow member states to make it more difficult for third countries that refuse to take back their migrants to obtain EU visas in a bid to address challenges stemming from illegal migration

BRUSSELS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 13th June, 2019) The Council of the European Union has adopted a batch of amendments to its visa code regulations that allow member states to make it more difficult for third countries that refuse to take back their migrants to obtain EU visas in a bid to address challenges stemming from illegal migration.

The changes to visa rules were adopted by the council on June 6, and are based on a stick and carrot approach. Those countries that cooperate with the EU on readmission may potentially get shorter processing time, lower fees and extension of validity of multiple entry visas.

The European Commission will regularly assess other countries' efforts to return their nationals, and if they refuse to cooperate, the commission may propose to apply "specific restrictive visa measures," related to visa processing and, eventually, to visa fee, according to a press release issued by the Council of the EU.

The European Union has been dealing with the consequences of the migrant crisis that erupted in 2015 when more than 1 million people came to Europe, many seeking asylum from conflicts and violence in the middle East and Africa.

And although the European Commission has declared the migration crisis over, the issue continues to dominate the European politics.

Fighting illegal immigration is one of the challenges faced by the European Union, and the updated visa regulation is one of the tools currently available to respond to it.

Aymeric Chauprade, a European Parliament member from France, told Sputnik that while the EU was heading "in the right direction," the measure was "too weak."

"I advocate directly linking the re-integration of illegal immigrants and the effective fight of countries of origin against emigration with development aid funding, provided by European countries," Chauprade said.

The lawmaker expressed support for EU countries that wanted to protect their security and what he called "the identity of European civilization."

"Within the great European family, there are clear-headed countries that see the dangers of extra-EU immigration and in particular from countries of Islamic culture. These countries are mainly in central and eastern Europe, but also Italy, that has decided not to suffer [from] demographic and migratory dynamics of the African continent," Chauprade underlined.

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Damien Lempereur, the spokesman for the Debout La France party, was less optimistic as he told Sputnik the new EU visa policy showed "how totally inefficient the Brussels bureaucracy is."

"In our view, at Debout La France, this approach is shocking and unacceptable in that it constitutes an attack on sovereignty of the member states over a matter that cannot be dealt with by the EU. Legally and practically. Each state must be free to decide who may or may not reside on its territory. On the other hand, cooperation between member states must be strengthened and we must - together - face the third countries that refuse to take back their own nationals," Lempereur said.

Large number of foreigners in European prisons is another consequence of uncontrolled migration. For example, Jan Penris, a lawmaker from the Belgian Vlaams Belang, said in March, citing figures provided by the Justice Ministry, that 44 percent of inmates in Belgian prisons were foreigners.

Theo Francken, the former Belgian state secretary for asylum, migration and administrative simplification, told Sputnik that last June, he counted 1,066 Moroccans and 520 Algerians in Belgian prisons.

"An almost unlimited number of foreigners staying illegally seem to engage in criminal activities in Belgium. In less than 4 years, I repatriated 5,346 criminals but the prisons were filling up at the same speed. In June 2018, I still had 4,964 criminals in prison, including 3,040 without residence permits," he stressed.

He pointed to the difficulties Belgium faced when trying to negotiate repatriation of migrants with some countries of origin.

"Getting repatriation is very difficult. Iran, for example, simply refuses to take back its nationals ... I had to negotiate a lot with many countries. Many countries do not cooperate at all," Francken pointed out.

According to the former state secretary, between 2010 and 2017, EU member states granted refugee status to 62,925 Iranians "for political, ethnic and religious reasons."