Yes to asylum centers outside the EU – “a turning point”

Brussels – The resistance was long strong – but now the EU is opening up for asylum processing in centers outside the union.

The agreement on the concept of so-called safe countries was made by the member states’ migration ministers in Brussels on Monday.

A turning point in the EU’s migration policy, thinks the EU’s Commissioner for Home Affairs Magnus Brunner.

Sweden’s migration minister Johan Forssell was stuck in traffic when the deal was made, but he welcomes it.

“It will be a huge difference compared to how it works today. It means that rejections can be made in a fast track. . . It is very important, both to reduce asylum immigration but also to reduce the deaths in the Mediterranean that we unfortunately see today,” says Forssell.

Among the countries considered safe – and whose citizens are therefore not deemed to have an automatic need for protection within the EU – are Kosovo, Bangladesh, India and Colombia.

A final agreement on what the rules will look like is now to be negotiated with the EU Parliament.

The migration ministers also agree on the “solidarity pools” that will help those countries in the EU that are considered to be under particularly heavy pressure when it comes to taking care of asylum seekers and migrants.

A third agreement concerns how to more quickly and easily send away people who are to be deported from the EU.

(8 December)