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Italy, Spain and three other southern EU countries have criticized a proposed Franco British migration contract and argued that they would have to withdraw people who have returned to the continent from Great Britain.
The five nations, which also include Greece, Malta and Cyprus, have sent a letter to the European Commission, which was seen by the Financial Times and against France, which negotiated an agreement on the exchange of asylum seekers with Great Britain to prevent migrants from crossing the channel in boats.
“We note – with a certain degree of surprise in the reported intention of France to sign a bilateral return agreement,” says the letter.
“If this is confirmed, such an initiative raises serious concerns for us both procedurally and in relation to potential effects on other Member States, especially for the first entry,” she wrote in the letter sent in the last week.
The exact conditions of the French-British deal remain unclear, but the principle would be to return irregular migrants to France, while Great Britain accepted asylum seekers who were aiming for resettlement. Such swaps were first tried in the EU migration agreement with Turkey to determine boat transitions to Greece.
A British official admitted that “the last hurdles last longer than expected”, since some EU countries “are more on board than others”. French President Emmanuel Macron will visit London on July 8th.
As part of the “Reset” association signed in May, the EU and the United Kingdom promised to work on “practical and innovative approaches” in order to reduce irregular migration. However, the departments within the EU and the demands from Great Britain prevented a more comprehensive agreement on migration.
Instead, Great Britain has promoted bilateral agreements with European capitals with regard to the most sensitive question of “small boats”. According to the government, 38,000 people crossed the channel in small ships in small ships in the year until March.
The Mediterranean group rejected it to negotiate France and negotiated the deal bilaterally with the United Kingdom and not as part of the EU Au “reset” contract.
The five signatories – often the first starting port for people who make the dangerous trip to Europe from Africa – are concerned that the initiative would mean that France uses the EU rules that return asylum seekers to the first country of entry in which their asylum claim should be processed.
“We believe that it is important to clarify whether the agreement can cause direct or indirect consequences for other Member States,” the countries wrote.
The letter takes place according to the British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starrer Requested advice From Italy’s leading Giorgia Meloni in the containment of irregular migration.
An EU official said that there were no very strong front at the side of the EU in the negotiations with Great Britain that there were no cherry stick, and they were disappointed that the problem was excluded. “We would have preferred to be in the context of our joint negotiations.”
The proposed asylum seeker between France and Great Britain reflects an agreement between the EU and Turkey from 2016, in which the block approved, to have exceeded a Syrian refugee camp in Turkey in return for every Syrian who has returned to Greece, which has exceeded the border irregularly.
While there are only a few actual swaps, the Turkish reception Tayyip Erdoğan kept the drainage of Syrian refugees, since the EU also agreed to pay Ankara in the amount of € 6 billion in migration aid. Since then, this amount has been exceeded at more than 12 billion euros.
The European Commission confirmed that it had received the letter. “We are in contact with the French and the British authorities to ensure that the necessary clarifications are made,” said a spokesman. “We work with France and Great Britain and other EU member states to support solutions that are compatible with the spirit and letter from the EU Act.”
The Commission added that the increase in man that was smuggled across the channel was “alarming” and deserved a robust reaction to the deterrent trips “.
Additional reporting by Anna Gross in London, Adrienne Klasa in Paris and Andy Bounds in Brussels.
