The EU wants to check asylum claims at the external borders. The federal government is insisting on further exceptions for children and families before the upcoming consultations. This meets with contradiction – also on the part of the FDP.
On Thursday, the EU interior ministers will discuss the reform of the Common European Asylum System (CEAS), which has been controversial for years, in Luxembourg. Among other things, it is about the question of whether there should be preliminary checks on asylum applications at the EU’s external borders.
According to Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and Family Minister Lisa Paus (both Green), the federal government wants to ensure that minors under the age of 18 and families with children do not have to go through these procedures.
In the Original proposal of the EU Commission it simply states that “unaccompanied children and children under the age of 12 with their family members are exempt from the border procedure provided there are no security concerns.”
FDP sees unification in Europe at risk
The federal government’s efforts to raise the age limit to 18 are met with resistance from the opposition Union – but also from the governing party FDP. Its Secretary General Bijan Djir-Sarai spoke in the Berlin “Tagesspiegel” in favor of humane care for all refugees at the EU’s external borders and an efficient asylum procedure: “If these rules apply, then there is no need for a debate about possible exceptions that could lead to an agreement in would only endanger Europe again.”
The parliamentary secretary of the Union faction, Thorsten Frei (CDU), told the same newspaper that the government was trying to “further soften the original proposal of the EU Commission in various places”. FDP faction leader Christian Dürr had also spoken out against exceptions.
Baerbock wants to “negotiate hard” in Brussels
Baerbock explained in the newspapers of the Funke media group that the commission’s proposal was the only chance of arriving at an “orderly and humane distribution procedure” in the foreseeable future. “That’s why we’re negotiating hard in Brussels to ensure that nobody gets stuck in border procedures for more than a few weeks, that families with children don’t get caught up in border procedures, that the core of the right to asylum isn’t eroded.”
Paus told the dpa news agency: “Sending children under the age of 18 to border procedures and thus to a highly precarious situation would pose an enormous threat to the welfare of the child.” She spoke of the risk of renewed traumatization. Green party leader Britta Haßelmann told Funke that many EU countries wanted to make the Commission’s proposal even more restrictive. “We’re against that.”
Faeser warns of the end of the Schengen area
Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) once again supported the project of border procedures in the “Handelsblatt” and simply said: “We want to give special protection to children and other vulnerable groups.”
In the event that there is no EU asylum reform, she prophesied an end to the control-free Schengen area: “Otherwise there is a risk of a return of the barriers at many internal European borders – and the people and the economy in the EU would be thrown back decades.”
EPP boss Weber wants to send federal police ships
The leader of the European People’s Party (EPP), Manfred Weber (CSU), generally defended the idea of asylum procedures at the borders. In the “Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung” he spoke out in favor of the federal police sending ships into the Mediterranean to rescue people in distress – as was the case with the EU naval mission “Sophia”.
Weber’s Union colleague Frei contradicted this: “The more ships are on the way to the rescue in the Mediterranean, the more people make the dangerous journey with unseaworthy boats and put their lives in danger.”
Celebrities appeal federal government
Meanwhile, dozens of actors, musicians and other celebrities spoke in one open letter to the government against a tightening of the asylum policy, for example with border procedures. Herbert Grönemeyer, the bands Kraftklub and Revolverheld, the actors Katja Riemann and Benno Fürmann as well as TV presenters such as Klaas Heufer-Umlauf and Ruth Moschner were listed as signatories to the internet appeal.
The government is accused in the letter of wanting to agree to “the most massive EU asylum law tightening ever” instead of promised improvements.
50,000 migrants reached Italy this year
The background to the EU consultations is the increased number of migrants. For months, many people have been trying to reach southern Italy from North Africa via the Mediterranean Sea. According to information from Rome, more than 50,000 migrants have come to Italy on boats since January.
According to the UN refugee agency UNHCR, more than 980 people have died or have been missing since the beginning of the year. In Germany, the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees received a good 100,000 initial applications for asylum in the first four months of this year, an increase of around 78 percent.