European Union (EU) lawmakers have voted to approve new immigration policies allowing member nations to deny asylum to — and deport — migrants who come from a country designated as safe or who could instead apply for asylum in a country outside the 27-nation bloc.
Bangladesh, Colombia, Egypt, Kosovo, India, Morocco, and Tunisia would be considered "safe countries of origins." EU candidate countries would as well, unless there are "relevant circumstances" like armed conflict, according to a parliamentary statement.
The new rules would take effect in June and would allow authorities to send back not only asylum seekers from those countries, but also third-country nationals who merely passed through those countries before reaching Europe.
Ira Mehlman, media director for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, says authorities across the 27 EU nations will soon be able to deport people to and slash asylum claims from the countries in question.
"It may be the case of too little, too late, but better late than never," he comments. "They are obviously starting to recognize that asylum policies have been widely abused as a way for economic migrants to make their way into Western prosperous countries."
These migrants have not been willing to assimilate into the receiving countries' cultures.
"People in those countries are forced to conform to whatever the people who are coming in want, rather than the other way around," Mehlman notes. "We have seen a lot of self-censorship in these countries and, not to offend, allowing the basic tenets of Western civilization to be subverted to accommodate the people who are arriving."
He says these are the sorts of things that people take notice of and eventually have enough of.
Many member states are already preparing to align their national practices with the new EU rules, indicating a high likelihood that they will be enforced. But Mehlman is unsure whether they will carry through and actually deport anyone.
