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Enforcing the return of asylum seekers must be the same throughout the entire EU

by AI | 31.Jan 2025 | Europe in brief AI

European Commissioner Magnus Brunner (Migration) believes that the return of rejected asylum seekers should be enforced in the same way throughout the entire European Union. This requires more coordination in the EU, Brunner said after a meeting of EU ministers responsible for migration. Brunner is thinking of uniform rules in the EU based on which rejected asylum seekers are returned to their country of origin.

European Commissioner Magnus Brunner Photo: APA/Hans Klaus Techt

WARSAW (ANP) – “When someone is ordered to leave a member state, it also applies to the entire European Union,” said Brunner. Effective enforcement of return decisions is therefore, according to him, of crucial importance.

New and stricter EU rules for the deportation of asylum seekers were central to Thursday’s meeting of EU ministers, including the Dutch minister Marjolein Faber (Asylum and Migration). The European Commission will come in March with a proposal for new EU legislation on return. Brunner said he had listened primarily to the wishes and needs of member states during his stay in Warsaw. He will use this in the coming weeks for his proposal.

The new EU legislation must in any case “be very ambitious, with clear obligations for returnees,” said Brunner. Stricter rules for returning asylum seekers who pose a threat to security are also “very important for us.”

In addition to improving return within and through the EU, cooperation with third countries must be intensified. These are countries from which asylum seekers come and where EU member states want to send them back. Not all countries want that. According to the European Commissioner, it is time to “take bigger steps to also anchor European migration interests in the partnerships that we will maintain worldwide.”

To this end, the EU must make better use of existing instruments, such as visa policy, said Brunner. Later this year, he will present a new visa strategy for this purpose.

(January 30, 2025)