By Federica Fanuli
Editor-at-Large, IndraStra Global
Image Attribute: Schwabinggrad
Ballett - platz der unbilligen lösungen II place of inequitable solutions.
Creator: Rasande Tysaker. Creative Commons Lizenzvertrag
The European
plan of immigration is now operationally active, as unveiled by the agreement signed on March 18, 2016 with Turkey, to control and stop irregular migration directed towards the EU.
Nevertheless, these operations were not without criticism. It is an agreement
that frees the European Union from the responsibility to solve the problem or
it is another failure of the political European institutions?
The Police of
the island of Lesvos are making the refugees to embark on ships that every
day will reach Turkey. According to the plan, only those migrants who have not applied
for asylum or whose application was judged unacceptable are destined for
returning back. The agreement also includes the opposite mechanism. For every
Syrian refugees arrived in Europe through illegal ways, and was then dismissed
in Turkey, it will be assured the settlement in Europe for who has legally
arrived in Turkey, also entitling the right of international protection.
The
first group of refugees that has been reported in Turkey were mostly from
Pakistan, Bangladesh and Morocco. The citizens of these nationalities are
unlikely to be granted asylum in Europe and, although Brussels has expressly
guaranteed that they have been informed them about the opportunity to submit a
request, but this first group seems to have not submitted any application. The
issue could be more problematic when to board on the boats towards the Turkish
coasts as citizens of Syrian nationality.
As matter of the fact, according
to the particular clause of geographical limit in application of the Geneva Convention,
asylum requests have to be treated in Europe and automatically judged
inadmissible because the refugees have arrived in Europe after crossing another
country, Though, Turkey, which ensures a low level of protection, Ankara has guaranteed
the legal amendment which will assure protection to Syrians
in line with the Convention, but no one knows when this might happen.
At this moment, the European Commission have submitted two
possible reforms of the asylum policy in Europe. Based on the "Dublin Principle",
it is the country of first arrival to manage asylum applications and being
called in question by the other member States, but as per the European Commission's proposed two
possibilities of reform. The first is that "the current allocation
criteria of asylum responsibility is confirmed, but pairing it with a
structural emergency relocation mechanism of redistribution, to trigger under
specific circumstances, when a member country is subject to a disproportionate
pressure". The second possibility introduces "a new placement for the
asylum seekers on the basis of a permanent key distribution mechanism".
Now,
it is time to wait for the opinion of the Twenty-eight States and, above all,
that their leaders not to object the relocation of those who have advanced
asylum request, arguing that the phenomenon of immigration is closely linked to
the proliferation of terrorism, especially now that Frontex, the European
agency in charge of cooperation of EU States at the EU borders, confirms with an assessment on the high risk of terrorist infiltration along
the borders. A thin line separates the disastrous vision that some have about
the European Union, which has submitted to the demands of Turkey and has
entrusted the management of asylum to Ankara. Or the European Union has simply
chosen a solution that frees the political European institutions and the Member
States from their responsibility to accommodate the victims of war and jihadist
terrorism. If immigration and terrorism go hand in hand, now it is important to
understand that in details, if this problem get solved, the EU will be in more able position to guarantee
to its citizens the high safety standards.
About the Author:
Federica Fanuli (TR RID : M-9093-2015) was graduated with honours in Political Science and International Relations from the University of Salento and she has obtained a Master's Degree in Political Science, European Studies and International Relations from the same university. As a Foreign Affairs analysts, she is an editorial board member of the Institute of Global Studies, a columnist at The Sunday Sentinel, an editorial board member of Cosmopolismedia.it and Editor-at-Large at IndraStra Global. She can be reached at her Linkedin Profile.
Federica Fanuli (TR RID : M-9093-2015) was graduated with honours in Political Science and International Relations from the University of Salento and she has obtained a Master's Degree in Political Science, European Studies and International Relations from the same university. As a Foreign Affairs analysts, she is an editorial board member of the Institute of Global Studies, a columnist at The Sunday Sentinel, an editorial board member of Cosmopolismedia.it and Editor-at-Large at IndraStra Global. She can be reached at her Linkedin Profile.
