sv flag go to the original language article
This article has been translated by Artificial Intelligence (AI). The news agency is not responsible for the content of the translated article. The original was published by TT.

The demand ahead of this week’s EU summit: Tighten migration

by AI | 16.Oct 2024 | Europe in brief AI

Migration will be a hot topic at the EU leaders’ summit in Brussels. Pressure should increase on asylum seekers to return when they do not have the right to stay in the EU.

Sweden's Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson. Photo: Mikaela Landeström/TT

Stockholm – Strict migration policy is absolutely necessary to tackle other difficult questions in Europe, says Sweden’s Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson ahead of the EU leaders’ summit in Brussels at the end of the week.

President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen has sent letters to EU leaders ahead of the summit. She promises legislative proposals that will increase pressure on migrants to return if they are not allowed to stay in the EU. And to once again investigate whether it is possible to build special centers for asylum seekers outside the EU’s borders.

The letter is a response to demands for tougher action in asylum policy from many member states, including Sweden.

Poland announced this week that it temporarily wants to remove the right of asylum and the issue is expected to be discussed at the summit. Poland accuses Russia and Belarus of sending migrants across the border in a hybrid attack to try to destabilize the EU.

Ulf Kristersson understands how Poland has acted and opens up to the possibility that the right of asylum needs to be adjusted.

“The right of asylum is not adapted for countries like Russia to ‘instrumentalize’ migrants and deliberately move them across borders into neighboring countries. One must dare to see asylum issues in a geopolitical light that is different today than it was after World War II,” he says ahead of the summit.

(October 15)