The number of migrants illegally crossing the Balkan route to Central and Western Europe halved in January compared to December. This was stated by the Commissioner for Internal Affairs Ylva Johansson in the Committee of the European Parliament on Civil Liberties, Justice and Internal Affairs. Austria cites a large number of illegal crossings as the reason for its veto on the Schengen applications of Bulgaria and Romania, writes Dnevnik.

One of the topics most likely to be agreed at the upcoming European Council is increasing the return to countries of origin of migrants whose asylum applications have been rejected in the EU. It is expected that a great emphasis will be placed on the control of the EU’s external borders, especially since there are no serious objections to this issue among the “27”, writes To Vima, citing Rador.

With Europe expected to face its biggest influx of migrants since 2015 this spring, migration is high on the agenda of the 27 summit in Brussels on Thursday and Friday.

In an attempt to “break” migration out of the impasse it is in at EU level, the president of the European Commission has sent proposals to “27” member states to see if agreement can be reached on specific issues, given that the European Pact on Migration and Asylum is still far from becoming a reality.

To have a better chance of success, Ursula von der Leyen’s proposals to the 27 governments focus on measures that will limit migration (with which most member states agree) rather than those that provoke a strong reaction and require solidarity among member states, as -that is, the distribution of asylum seekers throughout the EU, so that the frontline countries do not bear the entire burden.

According to the Commission’s reasoning, the proposed measures can be implemented immediately, while efforts for a common European asylum and migration system continue with the hope that this will be achieved by spring 2024, before the next European Parliament elections.

Increasing returns

One of the topics most likely to be agreed at the upcoming European Council is increasing the return to countries of origin of migrants whose asylum applications have been rejected in the EU.

The Commission’s proposal is for Brussels to use all means at its disposal to pressure third countries to accept their citizens who have not been recognized as refugees in the EU, such pressure is aimed at European funding, trade and visas.

According to leaked information from von der Leyen’s letter to the 27 member states, the Commission suggests certain third countries that could be more effectively pressured.

It is expected that a great emphasis will be placed on the control of the external borders of the EU, especially since there are no serious objections in this regard among the “27”.

The broader consensus on this issue is encouraged by the fact that even in the usually “softer” European Parliament compared to the “harder” European Council of Heads of State and Government, there were many MEPs who called for more effective border protection during the debate, which after the speech by the background der Leyen on migration at the plenary session of the parliament last Wednesday.

One of the most acute “problems” of strengthening the protection of external borders is financing the construction of border fences. The European Commission refuses to finance fences from European funds, but the voices for this are multiplying.

For example, Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehhammer called on the EU to finance a fence on the border between Bulgaria and Turkey, worth 2 billion euros.

Athens, which announced the extension of the fence in the Evros area, is in favor of EU funding for the fences. Von der Leyen opposes the fences on the grounds that they are against European values, but European Council President Charles Michel has publicly called on the European Commission to fund them.

New routes

The increase in migration flows worries Europeans. According to Frontex, more than 330,000 illegal arrivals were registered in the EU last year, which is 100,000 more than in 2021.

At the same time, traffickers are opening new routes to bypass obstacles. Recently, attempts have been made to open a corridor from the Moroccan Casablanca, which is 300 km from the shores of the Mediterranean Sea.

Morocco does not allow people with migrant profiles from sub-Saharan Africa to even board buses to the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla in the north. As a result, thousands of potential migrants to Europe from Chad, Mali, Sudan and other African countries end up in Casablanca.

There they live as best they can on the streets or in abandoned houses without any prospects, representing an attractive “market” for human traffickers. After incidents near the fence separating Morocco from Melilla last June, in which 23 people were killed, Morocco dismantled temporary African settlements in the area and moved them further south to Casablanca.

According to the Moroccan authorities, from 2020 to 2022, more than 170,000 illegal migrants were arrested in the country and more than 910 human trafficking networks were eliminated.

Morocco is keen to convince Brussels of its contribution to the fight against illegal migration to Europe, as the EU plans to pay the African country 500 million euros for the period 2021-2027.

Sources: Dear Vima, Diary, Rador