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#Refugees: Parliament debates over new approach for refugees

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immigrationA centralised asylum system would allow the EU to better manage flows of migrants and asylum seekers, according to a new report by the European Parliament. 

In a non-binding resolution, MEPs acknowledge the failure of the EU asylum system to cope with ever-rising numbers of migrant arrivals and call for a radical overhaul of the Dublin Regulation. They propose establishing a central system for collecting and allocating asylum applications. The scheme, which could include a quota for each EU member state, would work on the basis of 'hotspots' from which refugees would be distributed.

The resolution, drafted by MEPs Roberta Metsola (EPP) and Kashetu Kyenge (S&D), comes at a time when the Commission is also considering a revision of the Dublin Regulation. The Commission promised some concrete proposal by the summer, with the aim to redistribute the asylum-seekers within member state.

The current asylum system doesn't take proper account of the particular migratory pressures faced by member states with EU external borders, namely Greece and Italy. MEPs demand changes to ensure fairness and shared responsibility, solidarity and swift processing of applications, to avoid a repetition of last summer and of the dramatic situation of Idomeni.

The Parliament's text calls on member states to fulfil their obligations with regard to urgent relocation measures, stressing that so far, only a minimal part of the 106,000 asylum seekers awaiting reassignment from Italy and Greece to other EU countries had actually been relocated. MEPs demand new EU-wide 'readmission' (return) agreements which they say should take precedence over bilateral ones between member states and third countries. They insist that migrants should be returned only if the country to which they are being returned to is safe for them.

The two authors of the Parliament's draft stressed the need for reforms on this topic."There is no quick fix for migration, no magic silver bullet. We do not need more emergency solutions, we need a sustainable approach for the future”, said Metsola, while Kyenge added that "Migration should not be combatted, it should be managed".

However, right-wing MEPs criticized this draft and the proposal the Commission is trying to put through. UKIP migration spokesman Steven Woolfe MEP summarize his party's mood on the matter of EU migration: "The European Union has proved itself to be utterly incompetent when dealing with matters of migration."

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Helga Stevens MEP, European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) said she could not support the proposals which centralise decision-making regarding asylum and immigration policy, and seek to open new routes for legal migration.

Stevens was very critical of the need to a more 'holistic' approach to the matter. She said: "There is no comprehensive plan at all. The only area that both sides can agree on is to create a highly centralised asylum system that forces decisions onto member states without strict conditions, like a maximum limit.

Stevens mentioned that for her the proposal "fail to make a clear distinction between refugees and economic migrants, nor do they set out any plan for speeding up processing and returns. They make no effort to push for the EU's rules and the Dublin Regulation to be applied by all member states, and there is no clear focus on supporting the proper integration and activation of refugees that are given shelter in our territory."

Stevens and ECR home affairs coordinator Timothy Kirkhope have published a list of ten priorities that focus on stemming the flows of migrants, with a clear distinction between economic migrants and refugees.

Commenting on this effort, she said: "We have voted against this report and its unworkable proposals, and have instead proposed an alternative set of priorities that would actually stem flows and focus on the fundamentals of border protection, processing, returns and providing humanitarian conditions and integration of refugees."

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