Status: 08/31/2021 8:02 p.m.
Don’t make your way to Europe – the EU interior ministers are sending this signal to refugees from Afghanistan. The ministers could not agree on specific commitments. But they absolutely want to prevent a situation like the one in 2015.
For the time being, the EU does not want to make any concrete commitments to accept people from Afghanistan. “Incentives for illegal migration should be avoided,” said a statement adopted at a special meeting of interior ministers.
In the light of previous experience, the EU and its member states are determined to prevent a repetition of large and uncontrolled illegal migration movements. This alluded to the so-called refugee crisis in 2015/2016. At that time, more than a million migrants from Syria and other countries had reached the EU, which led to tension in many EU countries.
“Everyone wants to avoid a situation like 2015”
Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson said ahead of the meeting that the EU should take in women, children, judges, journalists and human rights defenders who are now at risk. “We have to avoid a humanitarian crisis, we have to avoid a migration crisis and we have to avoid a threat to security,” she said, adding: “Everyone wants to avoid a situation like 2015.”
In order to prevent a similar development after the Taliban came to power in Afghanistan, according to the declaration, it should now be ensured that people in need in the immediate vicinity of Afghanistan receive adequate protection. Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Quereshi had previously called for a situation to be created in Afghanistan in order to prevent the movement of refugees from the outset. His country has already taken in three million people from the neighboring country, he said after a meeting with Federal Foreign Minister Heiko Maas in Islamabad.
In the declaration of the EU interior ministers, among other things, targeted information campaigns against the narratives of people smugglers are mentioned as a suitable instrument. Afghans in need of protection should therefore only be resettled if EU countries voluntarily offer places for this.
No specific figures from Seehofer
When asked about Germany’s possible involvement, Federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer pointed out that the Federal Republic had always been involved in relevant initiatives so far. However, he did not want to make any specific commitments. “I don’t think it’s very wise if we’re talking about numbers here, because numbers naturally trigger something,” said the CSU politician. One does not want to trigger a “pull effect”.
Federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer at a press conference before the meeting of EU Justice and Interior Ministers in the European Council building.
Image: dpa
The CSU politician criticized his Luxembourg counterpart Jean Asselborn, who at times threatened to block the EU declaration because of what he saw as insufficient pledges of support. “Mr Asselborn should look a little more closely at the problems that the big countries in the European Union have,” he said. One is not talking about a few hundred people, but about many thousands who are already in Germany. Luxembourg should show a little more consideration for the main receiving countries.
In the end, Asselborn gave in after the EU Commission had promised to organize a new settlement forum in September. Countries there could then promise to accept a certain number of people in need of protection.
More than 122,000 civilians displaced from the country
After the Taliban came to power, the US and its allies have now brought more than 122,000 civilians out of the country, according to the government in Washington. These include in particular former local staff from the respective armed forces.
According to the EU Commission, 42,000 Afghans received protection in the EU last year. They made up just over a tenth of initial asylum applications, the second largest group after Syrians.