EU’s failure over illegal migrants fuels crisis

The Australian

By Bruno Waterfield - The Times

24 August 2017

Europe’s failure to send home rejected asylum-seekers is worsening the migrant crisis, senior figures in Brussels believe.

An economic migrant who survives the journey across the Mediterranean has a 73 per cent chance of remaining in the EU even if served with an order to leave, official statistics show.

Less than a third of those told to leave are removed, creating an incentive for economic migrants to join refugees striving to reach Europe.

The latest figures for migrant arrivals show a surge from Africa and Asian countries with historically lower rates of recognition of refugee status than states such as Syria and Eritrea, suggesting that many people may be moving for economic reasons.

One EU diplomat working on migration said: “The inability of EU governments to enforce deportations is the biggest pull factor. If people know that as illegal immigrants they have a 70 per cent-plus chance of being able to stay, even if ordered to leave, then it is hardly surprising people get into the boats.”

David Wood, former director-general of immigration enforcement at the UK Home Office, said: “(In) reality . . . the vast majority stay here, regardless of the merits of their application.”

The concerns come as part of a series of reports by The Times on mass migration and its effect on countries and people along migrant routes, from Nigeria to Libya, into Italy and across Europe.

There were about 2.6 million asylum applications in 2015-16 with an average success rate of 57 per cent. That left governments with one million people to return, a report by the European Commission said.

The commission registers a “rate of effective return” to non-EU countries of 36.4 per cent. When returns to the western Balkans are disregarded, the figure drops to 27 per cent.

The profile of those arriving in Europe is also changing. The largest group to arrive last year was Syrian and more than 98 per cent of them were given asylum. In the first half of this year the largest group came from Nigeria, with 14,120 arrivals. In the previous year, the last for which figures are available, 21.7 per cent of Nigerians were given asylum. Guinea, Ivory Coast and Bangladesh were the next largest sources of arrivals this year, with Syria fifth.

In a letter to governments in March, Jean-Claude Juncker, the European Commission president, said: “Only a third of those who should be returned are effectively returned. This is . . . not sustainable.”

The commission is considering sanctions on states that obstruct the return of failed asylum seekers, including denying visas to their citizens.

Additional reporting: Catherine Philp and Richard Ford


Source: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/the-times/eus-failure-over-illegal-migrants-fuels-crisis/news-story/0907204643be2020c9ac6ab2dbb9e329